Russia presidential election will be March 2: Senate chief

Russia’s scheduled presidential election will take place on March 2 next year, local media quoted the speaker of parliament’s upper house as saying on Friday.The Federation Council (upper house) will convene in special session on November 26 to officially set the date, speaker Sergei Mironov said. “That date will fall on March 2,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

Mironov’s comments confirmed widespread expectations that the election would take place in early March. President Vladimir Putin has said he will be stepping down in line with a constitutional ban on more than two consecutive terms.