Russia’s Communist Party on December 23 nominated Nikolai Kharitonov, 75, to run against President Vladimir Putin in next March’s presidential election. Kharitonov ran against Putin in 2004, receiving 13.7 percent of the vote to Putin’s reported 71.3 percent. The announcement comes the same day Russia’s Central Election Commission barred journalist Yekatarina Duntsova, who has called for peace in Ukraine, from running for president, citing alleged mistakes in her application to register as a candidate. Putin is expected to comfortably win the election, as Moscow has for years sidelined opponents from elections and the political scene, a clampdown that intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022