[4] Russian president Vladimir Putin described Bogdanov as "an ambitious young man with progressive views".

[6] The British newspaper Times Online articulated suspicions that Bogdanov could be a puppet candidate used by the government in an attempt to make the elections appear legitimate.

[3] Nonetheless, many serious political commentators have described Bogdanov as a decoy carefully positioned by Putin to split and distract political opposition, whilst a 2012 article published by the Institute of Modern Russia (IMR) described Bogdanov as a "well-known Kremlin shill", or confidence trickster's decoy.

Other external commentators have accused Bogdanov, and his political parties, of being controlled by the Kremlin, so as to give an appearance of democracy.

[11] However, he withdrew from the election on 13 April 2009, urging his supporters to vote instead for acting mayor Anatoly Pakhomov, the government-backed pro-Putin[12] candidate.

[2][18] Andrei Bogdanov is publicly open about his practice of Freemasonry and has given interviews in the media as the Grand Master of the GLoR.

According to the General Regulations of the GLoR, Andrei Bogdanov will hold the post of Grand Master for a further 5 years, until 2020.