The 2018 presidential campaign of Pavel Grudinin, CEO of the Lenin State Farm and former Member of the Moscow Oblast Duma, was announced at the Communist Party congress on 23 December 2017.

[6] Pavel Grudinin was officially elected as the presidential candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation at its congress on 23 December.

[14] On 19 January Grudinin visited Saint Petersburg, where he laid flowers to the monument on the embankment of the Fontanka river, where people were taking water during the Siege of Leningrad, held a press conference and meeting with voters.

On 31 January Grudinin visited Meat-processing plant "Sava", where he inspected the company and talked to the workers, gave a press conference for the Bashkir media and held a meeting with voters.

In Yekaterinburg Grudinin met with members of the Presidium of the Ural branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In Rostov-on-Don Grudinin gave a press-conference for regional mass media, visited the company Rostselmash, where he talked with workers, and in the evening held a meeting with voters in the Palace of Culture of Railwaymen.

[20][21][22] On 6 February Pavel Grudinin gave an interview to the popular Russian video blogger Yury Dud.

In an interview Grudinin said he believes Joseph Stalin is the best ruler of Russia in the last hundred years.

In Barnaul Grudinin with his colleagues laid flowers at the monument to Lenin in the Square of the Soviets and held two major events.

First he put flowers to the monument of Lenin, he proceeded to visit the local agrarian university, where he answered the questions of both the leadership and students.

Next he met with the leadership of the Siberian Federal Center for agrobiotechnology, after which was a meeting with the scientific and entrepreneurs of Novosibirsk Oblast.

On 3 March, Grudinin visited Usolsky pig farm, where he talked with employees of the company, and later met with voters in Irkutsk.

[32][33][34][35] In addition, Grudinin also held a meeting with the Governor of the Irkutsk Oblast Communist Sergey Levchenko.

[36] On 6 March, Pavel Grudinin held a meeting with voters in Pavlovsky Posad in the Moscow Oblast.

[37] On 10 March, in Moscow on Revolution Square held a rally of the Communist Party, Left Front and National Patriotic Forces of Russia "For Fair Elections!".

Speaking at the rally, Grudinin said that in December 2017, when he was nominated for President, he believed that the elections would be really fair, but during the campaign he turned information attacks.

In addition to Grudinin, the Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov, coordinator of the Permanent Meeting of National Patriotic Forces of Russia Vladimir Filin, Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, as well as other supporters of Pavel Grudinin also spoke at the rally.

The introduction of criminal liability for involvement in a bonded transaction, the prohibition of "correctors" activities and assignment of debt obligations of the citizens.

True independence of the court and the investigating authorities from the executive power, election of judges, distribution of the competence of juries in cases of "extremism", based on the 282-th article, and for corruption crimes of higher officials.

[41] Some Russian politicians of the left-wing have negatively perceived the nomination of Grudinin as presidential candidate of the Communist party.

Grudinin faced overwhelming criticism from the Russian state media as his campaign was proving to be more successful than other challengers to the sitting President, as indicated by an Electoral Preference Poll, conducted by VCIOM Research Center three weeks before the results of the election, where Grudinin was placed firmly as a distant runner-up to Putin.

Primarily, the media focused on his foreign monetary assets not being disclosed to the public, which, given his already established reputation as a wealthy businessman, hinted at the fraudulent nature of his Communist beliefs and ideology.

Therefore, it is clear that a large part of the potential electorate would not support such a candidate.Sergey Mironov, leader of the social democratic party A Just Russia (which did not nominate any candidate for election, but supported Vladimir Putin) also criticized the nomination of Grudinin:[44] In my opinion, they made a mistake, a political mistake, and my long-cherished idea of inevitability in historical perspective, the closest Association the Communist party and A Just Russia with this step, this idea is close to its implementation, I think.The reason for the criticism of Pavel Grudinin was the existence of his foreign accounts which he has not specified when submitting documents to the CEC for participation in election.

So, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, commenting on the reports said the Communists finally turned in the direction of capitalism, as nominee on presidential election candidate–billionaire.

[47] Chairman of the Board of deputies of Leninsky District of Moscow Oblast Valery Ventsal sent a letter to Prosecutor General Yury Chaika, asking to check the availability of the foreign accounts of the candidate in presidents of the Russian Federation Pavel Grudinin, when he ran for Moscow Oblast Duma and the District Council of Deputies.

Ventsal asks "to undertake a review in relation to Mr. P.Grudinin the fact that he had accounts in foreign banks at the time of the election campaigns in the Moscow Oblast Duma in 2016, and in 2017, to representative bodies of local self-government of urban and rural settlements of the Leninsky municipal district".

[48] The Communist party explained that Grudinin in foreign accounts opened in the period from January to December 2017 for the treatment of relatives, was 37 million roubles, not 7.5 billion, as previously reported by some media.

At the same time, the Chairman of the Central election Commission Ella Pamfilova called on Pavel Grudinin to independently provide the CEC with information on the closure of all its foreign accounts.

[53][54] On 2 February, appeared in the media information about the acquisition of family Pavel Grudinina home in Spain.

[55][56] The head a press-services of Communist party Alexander Yushchenko, commenting on these posts said that neither Pavel Grudinin, nor his spouse or his minor children do not own any house in Spain.