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Russian President Vladimir Putin (Xinhua file photo)

MOSCOW, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) has registered a group of voters who support the self-nomination of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the 2018 presidential election and gave him permission to open a special account for the formation of the electoral fund.

Thus, the commission allows him to officially launch the presidential campaign and collect signatures of voters in his support, according to a video report of the CEC meeting posted on its website on Thursday.

The commission registered a group of voters who support the self-nomination of Putin for the presidential race set for March 18, 2018.

The initiative group of voters, which included more than 600 people, voted on Tuesday to nominate him as a candidate in the election.

The commission also registered Putin's authorized representatives on financial issues and allowed him to open a special electoral account with the country's largest lender Sberbank needed to start collecting signatures of voters for registration at the elections.

Under Russian legislation, the printing of subscription lists, promotion materials and all other paperwork should be paid from the electoral account. The size of its contents cannot exceed 400 million rubles (6.96 million U.S. dollars).

On Wednesday, Putin submitted to the CEC documents needed to officially start his 2018 presidential campaign.

These included an application for registration of the group of supporters, a statement of consent to running for president, confirmations of biographical data, as well as income and property ownership data.

As Putin chose to run as an independent candidate, he has to collect no less than 300,000 signatures from his supporters to be registered as a candidate in the race.