1. A decision to nominate a federal list of candidates from a political party shall be taken by secret voting at a congress of the political party according to the Law “On Political Parties”.

2. The procedure of placing candidates on the federal list of candidates and of secret voting mentioned in part 1 of this Article shall be defined in the Charter of a political party.

3. The nomination of a federal list of candidates at a congress of a political party shall be carried out in 25 days after the official publication of announcement of elections of deputies of the State Duma.

4. The decision of the congress of a political party on the nomination of a federal list of candidates shall be in form of a protocol, which must indicate:

(1) the number of registered participants in the congress;

(2) the number of participants which is required for adoption of the decision under the Charter of the political party;

(3) the decision on the nomination of candidates and the voting results on this decision (the federal list of candidates shall be attached);

(4) the decision on the appointment of authorized representatives of the political party, its authorized agents on financial matters as well as authorized representatives of regional branches of the political party, its authorized representatives on financial matters (in the case of the nomination thereof);

(5) the date of the resolution. 5. A political party shall be entitled to nominate candidates on its federal list of candidates who are not members of the given political party. The said persons shall comprise no more than fifty per cent of the total number of candidates on the federal list of candidates. The federal list of candidates cannot include citizens who are members of other political parties.

6. The federal list of candidates nominated by a political party shall be signed by the leader of the political party and certified with the party's seal.

7. The persons on a federal list of candidates and their order thereon shall be determined by a political party in compliance with the requirements imposed by part 5, 8-11 of this Article.

8. A federal list of candidates can be split into federal and regional parts. The regional part consists of regional groups of candidates corresponding to the group of the bordering subjects of the Russian Federation, a group consisting of the bordering subjects of the Russian Federation and the subject of the Russian Federation, non-bordering with other subjects of the Russian Federation, a group of two subjects of the Russian Federation, one of which is not bordering with other subjects of the Russian Federation, the subject of the Russian Federation or part of the territory of the subject of the Russian Federation, which includes the territory of single-mandate electoral district or territory of two or more bordering single-mandate electoral districts. The group of subjects of the Russian Federation (including names of subjects of the Russian Federation), subject of the Russian Federation, single-mandate electoral district or districts (including their names and numbers) which corresponds to regional part of federal list of candidates shall be indicated, as well as a number of each regional group of candidates. In the event of absence of federal part in a federal list of candidates, the entire list shall be divided into regional groups in accordance with requirements of this Article.

9. The total number of candidates in the federal list of candidates shall not be less than 200 and not exceed 400 candidates, and shall include not less than 35 regional groups of candidates. No less than 10 candidates may be included in the federal part of a federal list of candidates. Regional part of the federal list of candidates shall cover the entire territory of the Russian Federation.

10. Federal list of candidates may include candidates nominated by political parties in single-mandate electoral districts.

11. A candidate may be mentioned in a federal list of candidates only once.