On February 24, 2022, he was added to Canada's sanctions list of "close associates of the regime" for voting in favor of recognizing the independence of the "so-called republics in Donetsk and Luhansk.

[8] Kharitonov proposed re-erecting the statue of Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky, which formerly stood in front of the Lubyanka Building until it was pulled down in 1991.

[8][7] Putin's camp believed that Kharitonov's candidacy benefited their cause by helping to increase turnout and weakening Sergey Glazyev's vote share.

Following his complaints, the RTR television network agreed to broadcast live coverage of a speech Kharitonov gave to his supporters in Tula on 4 March 2004.

Kharitonov also advocated the introduction of a progressive scale of taxation, lowering the retirement age to 55 for women and 60 for men, raising the monthly minimum wage to 35,000 rubles and increasing pensions.

[14] When asked by a BBC journalist about his electoral campaign, Kharitonov refused to answer why he thought he would be a better candidate than Vladimir Putin, before proceeding to praise the latter for "trying to solve a lot of the problems of the 1990s" and consolidating the country for "victory in all areas".