This article contains the list of candidates associated with the 1996 Russian presidential election.

78 voter initiative groups were authorized by the Central Election Commission to collect signatures.

However, only seventeen candidates managed to submit petitions with one million signatures by the deadline on April 16.

[4] Six of these were rejected by the Central Election Commission.

The following individuals were included in some polls, were referred to in the media as possible candidates or had publicly expressed interest long before the elections but never announced that they would run.