The initiative group will nominate Russian President Vladimir Putin to run in the March 2018 presidential election

Putin did not attend the meeting.

Russian election law states that independent presidential candidates need the nomination of “initiative groups” composed of at least 500 people. 

After submitting a formal application to the Central Election Commission, independent candidates must collect 300,000 signatures endorsing their candidacy, in order to appear on the ballot.

Earlier it was reported that Alexey Navalny’s candidacy bid failed when election officials rejected his application.