OREANDA-NEWS The personnel commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation nominated deputy Nikolai Kharitonov as a candidate for the presidential election. Interfax writes about this with reference to a source in the commission.

As the secretary of the Central Committee of the party, Alexander Yushchenko, explained to the agency, a number of meetings will be held on December 22, during which the heads of the party branches, and then the plenum of the central committee of the Communist Party, will discuss preparations for the elections and presidential candidates.

In turn, the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Sergei Obukhov, wrote in Telegram that Kharitonov's candidacy was proposed by the head of the party, Gennady Zyuganov.

According to Vedomosti, the party is expected to approve the candidate at the congress scheduled for December 23. In addition to Kharitonov, Communist leader Zyuganov, deputy chairmen of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Dmitry Novikov, Leonid Kalashnikov, Vladimir Kashin, Yuri Afonin and Ivan Melnikov were discussed as candidates, the source said.

The fact that Kharitonov is being considered as a candidate for the Communist presidential nomination became known on December 13. The State Duma deputy has already competed with the current head of state, Vladimir Putin, in the elections in March 2004, taking second place with 13.69 percent of the vote.