That escalated quickly.

Election Chief Pamfilova Calls On 'Ape' Deputy To Resign

You might recall Communist Duma deputy Tamara Pletnyova mocking the election as "nothing but vote rigging" to Tambov regional TV, adding, "If they tell me to vote for an ape, I'll do it!"

Now Central Election Commission Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova has fired back, according to RIA:

"If the respected Tamara Vasilyevna thinks that there are no elections in Russia but only falsificiations, then it is simpler not to sit in the Duma and not to take the relatively high salary of a deputy and not to head a committee and not to use the advantages that deputies have, but to be honest and logical to the end and resign."

Putin Formally Registered As Presidential Candidate

By RFE/RL

Russian President Vladimir Putin has been formally registered as a candidate in Russia's March 18 presidential election.

The Central Election Commission registered Putin on February 6, exactly two months after he announced his intention to run for a fourth term.

With high approval ratings and control over the levers of power, Putin is widely expected to win the vote....

Putin is the third presidential candidate officially registered by the Central Election Commission. Others registered so far are the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Communist Party nominee Pavel Grudinin.

Others who have declared their intention to run are liberal Grigory Yavlinsky, business ombudsman Boris Titov, and the journalist and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak.

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Zhirinovsky Suggests Hitting Ukraine's President With 'Small' Nuclear Bomb

Earlier this week, LDPR candidate Zhirinovsky appeared on a talk show where the topic of Ukraine came up. Zhirinovsky proposed dropping a bomb on the residence of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

"A small one. Not as big as Hiroshima, but small. Right on Poroshenko’s house, not big,... maybe a 10-kilometer radius." He continued: “So there will be radioactive fallout. Again, at a minimum, that's what you have to do."

From the Telegraph's Russia correspondent.

The presidency isn’t the only thing on Russian ballots on March 18. Some municipalities across Russia are also expected to hold nonbinding referendums on local issues, like infrastructure spending.

One of the tussles reflects the strong showing by liberal politicians in September’s local elections in and around the capital. The Moscow district of Akademichesky wants to ask local voters for a ban on buildings higher than nine stories in an effort to keep high-rises from transforming the well-heeled region. But prosecutors are so far blocking the push to include the question on the ballot, and a court is expected to rule this week on the question.

Vladimir Putin has officially qualified to appear on the ballot of the March 18 election.

Not that there was any doubt to begin with, but Putin’s election campaign spokesman told RIA-Novosti on February 5 that his registration papers have been officially accepted by the Central Election Commission. Including Putin, six candidates are confirmed as having submitted the required 100,000 signatures by the January 31 deadline. The commission has until February 10 to approve or reject candidate registrations papers.

Sobchak Goes To Washington

Ksenia Sobchak has raised plenty of eyebrows with her campaign. Her visit to Washington this week is raising yet more.

Sobchak told Russian media that, among other things, she would be seeking to meet policymakers to discuss the U.S. Treasury Department’s recent “oligarchs list,” a sort of blacklist of government officials and Kremlin-connected wealthy businessman. And she’ll be speaking at at least one public venue: a talk scheduled for February 6 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), an influential Washington think tank.

Her supporters argue she’s a viable alternate to Putin. But visiting the U.S. capital just six weeks before the vote, at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are at their worst since the Cold War, is giving plenty of ammunition to her detractors, who already suspect her candidacy was engineered by the Kremlin to boost voter turnout. Critics have also wondered why it makes sense for a Russian presidential candidate to travel out of the country -- to the United States, moreover -- just six weeks before the vote.