From there, Medvedev appointed the head of the Federal Agency for Water Resources Rustem Khamitov as the acting president of Bashkortostan until he was confirmed by the State Assembly to the post on 19 July 2010.

[5] At the same time, the Bashkir public organization "People's Referendum" appealed to the residents of Bashkortostan with an initiative to hold a popular referendum on the need for early presidential elections, due to the fact that the current president of the republic was appointed according to the "old scheme" (through the appointment of the President of the Russian Federation and approval of the subject in Parliament).

[7][8][9] On 30 May 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted Khamitov's resignation in order to take part in the presidential election, which was set to take place on 14 September 2014 on a single voting day.

[13] Radiy Khabirov was initially considered as a likely rival for Rustem Khamitov in the Bashkortostan United Russia presidential primaries, whose candidacy could suit both the federal authorities and the republican political elite in the person of the former President Murtaza Rakhimov.

[19] According to political scientist Konstantin Kalachev, Sarbaev had good chances of success, and the election would become more interesting and more democratic, telling that “the inhabitants of Bashkiria have missed competitive elections, and the nomination of a candidate of such caliber and with such powerful support radically changes the situation.”[22] On 9 July 2014, the day when the procedure for nominating candidates from parties for presidency was set to end, Sarbaev was removed at the party congress in the Moscow Oblast by the Civic Platform that nominated him with the saying “in connection with the commission of acts that contradict the interests of the party and inflict her damage.” The head of the Republican Branch of the Civic Platform Aleksey Skrynditsa, claimed that Sarbaev had not known about the decision of the congress and did not participate in it.

[23] According to experts, after Sarbayev's nomination, dubious political strategists began to work actively in the region, and custom-made publications appeared in the federal media.

[27] On 23 June 2014, the participants of the conference of the Bashkir Republican Branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) by open vote, out of four proposed candidates, voted for two contenders of whom were Second Secretary of the Bashkir Republican Branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Yunir Kutluguzhin and First Secretary of the Iglinsky District Committee of the CPRF Khasan Idiatullin.

[28] The Bashkortostan Regional Branch of the Patriots of Russia nominated head of the staff of the Public Chamber of Bashkiria Ildar Bikbaev on 22 June 2014 as a presidential candidate.