A total of eight candidates are planning to bid for the Presidency of Russia against Prime Minister and almost certainly future President Vladimir Putin.

Russia's Central Electoral Commission will consider the registration of eight "self-promoted candidates" to the forthcoming presidential elections, commission's spokesman Nikolai Konkin said Friday, as cited by RIA Novosti.

The wannabe presidential candidates to face Putin include leader of the Other Russia coalition Eduard Limonov, billionaire and former leader of the Pravoe Delo party Mikhail Prokhorov, leader of unregistered Volya (Will) party Svetlana Piunova, Vladivostok ex-mayor Viktor Cherepkov, Irkutsk Region Governor Dmitry Mezentsev, Orenburg public figure Renat Khamiev, former joint chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces Leonid Ivashov and essay writer Boris Mironov.

Under Russian law, each of the presidential candidates must collect 2 million signatures in his or her support.

On Friday, the Central Electoral Commission denied registration to Nikolai Levashov, a self-described healer, because he has lived in Russia for only six years. The man claims to heal people by phone.

According to Russian law, a presidential candidate must reside in the country for at least ten years, but Levashov continuously lived in the United States from 1995 to 2006.

The presidential election campaign officially started in Russia on November 26, with the polls scheduled to take place on March 4, 2012, RIA Novosti reminds.