Putin immediately offered Medvedev the opportunity to stand on the United Russia ticket in the parliamentary elections in December 2011 and become prime minister at the end of his presidential term.

[4][5] The following individuals submitted documents to the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) in order to be officially registered as presidential candidates.

[8] During the campaign Putin made a single outdoor public speech at a rally of his supporters in the Luzhniki Stadium on 23 February, Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day.

[citation needed] In the speech, he called on the Russian people not to betray the Motherland, but to love her and to unite for the common good.

[9] He compared the political situation (when there was widespread fear that the 2011–13 Russian protests could instigate a color revolution directed from abroad) with the First Fatherland War (more generally known as Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia), reminding listeners that the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Borodino would be celebrated in 2012.

[9] Putin cited Lermontov's poem Borodino and ended the speech with Vyacheslav Molotov's famous Great Patriotic War slogan "The Victory Shall Be Ours!"

[11] Proshka, a donkey owned by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, became prominent during the presidential campaign, when he was filmed in an election advertisement video.

[4] According to Tonino Picula, the Special Co-ordinator to lead the short-term OSCE observer mission, There were serious problems from the very start of this election.

"[4] The OSCE called for a thorough investigation of the electoral violations and urged citizens to actively oversee future elections in order to increase confidence.

[15] Pravda alleged that industrial plants with a continuous-cycle production have violated the law by bussing workers to polling centres.

[16] The chairman of the Moscow Election Committee Valentin Gorbunov countered the accusation saying that this was normal practice and did not constitute a violation.

According to Iosif Diskin, a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, there were special observers who controlled that workers have legal absentee certificates.

[17] Georgy Fyodorov, director of the NGO "Citizens Watch" ("Гражданский контроль"), said that statements from the monitoring group GOLOS about carousel voting in Strogino District were false,[18] however, Citizens Watch never addressed the evidence of the electoral fraud presented by GOLOS.

[22] On 11 March 2012 approximately 15,000–20,000 protesters demonstrated in Novy Arbat street against perceived fraud and Putin's rule.