Nikolai Kharitonov

Nikolay Mikhailovich Kharitonov (; born 30 October 1948) is a Russian communist politician. He has been the chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Development of Far Eastern and Arctic regions from 21 December 2011. Since 2025 he has been named a Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation.

Kharitonov was previously a member of the Agrarian Party until he quit in protest of their cooperation with the ruling United Russia party. He is best known for his unsuccessful bid to unseat incumbent President Vladimir Putin in the 2004 presidential election, and again in the 2024 presidential election.

Biography Nikolai Kharitonov was born on October 30, 1948, in the village of in Novosibirsk Oblast. He completed his education at the Novosibirsk Agricultural Institute. Between 1972 and 1994, he served as an agronomist and subsequently as the manager of the Galinsky state farm in the Moshkovsky District of Novosibirsk Oblast.

Since 1994, he has been a member of the State Duma.

2004 presidential campaign

Kharitonov was the Communist Party's nominee in the 2004 Russian presidential election. At the time, some observers perceived him to be a weak candidate, lacking in both name recognition and charisma. Russians were largely indifferent or unaware of his candidacy. He ran on the slogan "For the native land and the popular will",

2024 presidential campaign

Kharitonov announced that he would challenge Putin to a rematch in the 2024 Russian presidential election. Despite opposing many of Putin's domestic policies, he does not oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and as such has been placed on the sanctions list of the United Kingdom and the United States.

Kharitonov proposed a change in socio-economic policy, the development of industrial and agricultural sectors, and the nationalization of the nation's mineral resource base with the aim of generating new industrialization. Kharitonov also advocated the introduction of a progressive scale of taxation, lowering the retirement age to 55 for women and 60 for men, raising the monthly minimum wage to 35,000 rubles and increasing pensions.

When asked by a BBC journalist about his electoral campaign, Kharitonov refused to answer why he thought he would be a better candidate than Vladimir Putin, before proceeding to praise the latter for "trying to solve a lot of the problems of the 1990s" and consolidating the country for "victory in all areas".

Kharitonov lost in a landslide, placing second with 4.4% of the vote compared to Putin's 88.5%.

Sanctions On February 24, 2022, he was added to Canada's sanctions list of "close associates of the regime" for voting in favor of recognizing the independence of the "so-called republics in Donetsk and Luhansk." Additionally, he was included in the sanctions lists of Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Ukraine, and New Zealand.

On March 24, 2022, he was included in the US sanctions list for "complicity in Putin's war" and "support for the Kremlin's efforts to invade Ukraine".