After the imprisonment and amnesty in 1994, he was elected a deputy to the State Duma as a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (since 1995).

[1] Having made a name for himself after strongly attacking perestroika at the 1990 RSFSR Party Congress, calls for Mashakov to run for president arose in mid-May.

[3] Makashov declared his goal as president would be to preserve Russia as a power by insuring that it be strong and wealthy.

[4] He opposed the privatization of Russian industries, arguing that enterprises should instead be placed under the control of worker collectives.

[4] Considered to be a hard-liner, during his campaign Makashov publicly exchanged heated debate with reformers such as Aleksandr Yakovlev.

In order to appeal to this third group, Makashov's campaign repeatedly referenced "social defense" in the transition to a market economy.

According to a report produced by the Anti-Defamation League and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, Makashov "has become infamous worldwide for his anti-Semitic outbursts blaming Jews for the country's economic problems, and advocating the establishment of a quota on the number of Jews allowed in Russia.

"[12] After the general's call for expulsion of all Jews at a public meeting in 1999, there were attempts to prosecute him for hate speech; the newspaper Kommersant ran an article about him named "Makashov — Zoological Antisemite".

[14] Makashov was among the signatories of the "Letter of 5000", which was described as "an appeal to the prosecutor general urging him to review the activity of all Jewish organizations in Russia due to their alleged extremism" against non-Jews.