While Putin's leadership of Russia has been marked by its general rapprochement with the United States and NATO in general, the relationships remain tense. Russia under Putin has frequently decried perceived "Western imperialism" (most recently criticising the positions of the US and NATO on Libya and Syria). Particular points of tension have been the planned US missile defence shield project being established near Russia's western borders, and the death of Alexander Litvinenko, an alleged Russian spy who reportedly defected to the UK.

Russia has also has troubled relations with some of its near neighbours, particularly Georgia and the Ukraine. It has used the suspension of natural resource supplies as a tool of foreign policy.

In the defence sector, Putin has said that Russia's military must adapt to the changing nature of warfare, particularly citing the need to develop weapons based on new physical principles and cyber-warfare as areas where work needs to be done.

In a recent op-ed, Putin wrote that any attempt to create a "'national' mono-ethnic state is contrary to our thousand-year history [and] ... is the shortest path to the destruction of the Russian people". He has rejected multiculturalism as a workable policy, but argues that Russia is a "multinational" state that has a long history of ethnic mingling with peoples who are now citizens of its neighbours.

s called for the country's immigration policies to be reworked such that they provide preferential treatment to those who are more highly qualified and possess "cultural and behavioural compatability". He says that from 2013, immigrants should be subject to immigration status examinations on Russian language, history, literature and civics.

Putin has promised to increase doctors' salaries and to improve the efficiency of the health sector by introducing more monitoring of doctors' performance. The ultimate goal, he has said, is to increase physicians' salaries to twice the national average.

Putin has rejected economic isolation as a policy, and says the Russian economy must engage more with the world in the trade sector. He has also backed efforts to encourage technological innovation by providing tax incentives and to diversify the economy, particularing citing the pharmaceutical, materials, nanotechnology, information technology and communications sectors as candidates for growth. He has promised to continue the process of privatisation in all but the defence and oil sectors. Through these policies, he says his government will also overcome Russia's massive capital outflow problem.

The United Russia leader has also identified a growing gap in the incomes of the rich and poor as being "a source of social tension", and says he plans to address this through the diversification of the economy, the possible introduction of a luxury tax and by providing significant social safety nets -including increased pensions and measures to combat inflation - through the state.

Putin has promised to increase university teacher salaries to twice the national average salary over the period 2013-2018, but to do so in an incentive-based manner, as part of across-the-board teacher salary increases. He has also said that he will institute a plan that would see professional associations co-ordinate with universities in order to help connect graduates with employment opportunities, and vocational training opportunities provided to employee in low-skill jobs to allow for social mobility. He has called for universities to be given 50 per cent of their budgets for research and development.

Putin has identified housing as a sector where the state should provide citizens with more support, and has made it part of his National Priority Projects programme (instituted in 2005). He says he will reduce home construction costs, combat corruption in the construction sector and make it easier for citizens to obtain affordable mortgages. Overall, Putin has promised an at least 20 per cent drop in the cost of accommodation.

Putin has warned that the country's high male mortality rate and low birth rate threatens to turn Russia into a "geopolitical 'void' whose wate would be decided by other powers", and proposes new measures to combat male alcoholism and drug abuse, incentives for women who have more than two children, improved housing and educational benefits for citizens and a new immigration policy aimed at attracting both foreigners and Russians who have migrated elsewhere.

Zyuganov has called for role of NATO to be eliminated, and for Russia to increase its alliances in order to "counter the aggressive policies of imperialist circles". He has also stated a desire to distance Russia further from the World Trade Organisation.

He has also called for the role of the United Nations in resolving international disputes to be expanded, and for Russia to consolidate its alliances with Belarus and Kazakhstan.

While the CPRF's economic programme is aimed at helping Russian workers, it is not as strongly for the strenghtening of immigration controls as other parties.

The CPRF is for the provision of free healthcare to all citizens through a nationalised system.

Zyuganov's Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) aims to restore the Soviet system of socialism in Russia, supplanting capitalism. As such, his manifesto on economic policy focuses on nationalising struggling industries - including agriculture and the defence sector.

In particular, the CPRF aims to renationalise natural resource production.

Zyuganov has also promised a new era of industrialisation, to lower taxes for most people through the implementation of a new progressive taxation regime and to institute new government price-control mechanisms for necessities.

Zyuganov has promised to provide free, high-quality education to all Russians as part of his economic revival policy.

The CPRF aims to restore a public authority on housing and communal services that will be funded through fees "not to exceed 10 per cent of family income" and will implement social programmes in communities. It says it will expand public housing, particularly providing financial support for young families seeking housing.

No position.

"I am sure that Russia and the USA are doomed to agreements, collaboration and partnership. There is no other way," Mironov writes on his website.

On Russia's near neighbours, Mironov is in favour of protecting ethnic Russian communities in former soviet states, and supported the Russian intervention in Georgia/South Ossetia in 2008.

"I think it is necessary to further integration processes in the post-Soviet space, including with the aim to establish a confederation of Slavic states (uniting Russia, Ukraine and Belarus)," Mironov has said. "The creation of a Eurasian Union is also necessary and promising."

Overall, Mironov positions himself as being in favour of pragmatic relations based on a policy of protecting Russia's national interests.

Mironov has in the past supported the idea of instituting social welfare benefits for migrants, but asserts that attracting ethnic Russian migrants from former Soviet states is the answer to Russia's manpower issues, not its demographic issues.

The A Just Russia party has positioned itself as a socialist alternative to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and, as such, pushes for Russia to be a social welfare state, with individual rights such as access to healthcare, education, housing, food and social services, according to the party's manifesto.

Mironov has promised to nationalise Russian natural resource production, and to invest in infrastucture in order to consolidate Russia's industrial economic base.

He has also promised to institute a progressive taxation regime, with a new luxury tax to be imposed. Additionally, he has called for the overhaul of the country's pension system, calling it "grossly unfair".

The A Just Russia party has positioned itself as a socialist alternative to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and, as such, pushes for Russia to be a social welfare state, with individual rights such as access to healthcare, education, housing, food and social services, according to the party's manifesto.

The A Just Russia party has positioned itself as a socialist alternative to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and, as such, pushes for Russia to be a social welfare state, with individual rights such as access to healthcare, education, housing, food and social services, according to the party's manifesto.

Mironov's position on Russia's falling population is to institute healthcare programs to increase fertility and lower mortality, but also to raise the standard of living of all Russians and to carry out "a determined struggle against poverty in the country". He rejects the position that migration controls are the answer to the problem.

Prokhorov wants to protect Russian interests (and citizens) domestically as well as abroad, focusing on the EU as its main economic partner, wishes to create an integrated "geo-economic" zone with EU, with a common currency. On the military side, Prokhorov wants to create a “mobile, high-tech army” while ending conscription by 2015 and moving towards having a "professional army."

Prevent “excessive expansion of Chinese Capital and labour forces” and seems to want to tighten visa rules for those Central Asian countries as well, but wants to get rid of short term visa for workers from OECD countries, allowing them to live and work in Russia long-term.

Prokhorov believes that healthcare should be invested in and "strengthening the health of people of working age." He also believes in free emergency medical care, free state assistance in the event of "large scale emergencies or terrorist attacks." He calls for preventative care in the form of free, annual medical checkups. He wants no collusion between the medical and pharmaceutical industries and calls for more home care for senior citizens.

Increase competition, more job creation, tax overhaul (replace VAT with sales tax; hike sin taxes - alcohol, tobacco, luxury goods); privatize public corporations, improve regional transit between commercial centers.

Prokhorov starts with raising standards of training for teachers, and wants no political, ethnic or religious hand in the curriculum.

He's against the Single State Exam (a multiple choice exam which replaced oral and written tests as the metric for university entrance eligibility). He also wants the educational system to "match the employment landscape" - it's not clear what he means by that, but by the sounds of it, it could mean focusing higher education on vocational training with apprenticeships ("providing targeted contract-based training of personnel for potential employers who have given a guarantee of subsequent employment.")

Prokhorov calls for public housing programs in all cities with populations of more than 500,000; abolishing duties on imported construction material to "expedite" the rate of construction and to reduce the cost of utility services by ending the monopoly on suppliers.

Prokhorov recommends improving benefits for family allowances, nixing income tax for the first 1m rubles ($33,384) for families with three children or more, including adopted children.

As on many matters, Zhirinovsky's stance on foreign policy tends to be brash and controversial. He has repeatedly called for many of the former Soviet states, including Chechnya, Kazakhstan and Georgia, to be reoccupied by Russian forces. The LDPR leader has been barred from entering Germany, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine, and has been expelled from Bulgaria, for his comments regarding those countries.

One of his more famous foreign policy positions is his stated desire for Russian soldiers to "wash their boots in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean", a reference to his support for Russian expansion through the central and southern Asian states.

"We must stop indulging the West, and strongly discourage the placement of new military bases around Russia, and, conversely, take all measures to eliminate these existing bases around the perimeter of Russian borders," he wrote in a recent article.

His party also says that all grant aid to foreign governments should be immediately suspended.

"The basis of national public policy should be based on the principle: what is good for the Russian is good for the whole of Russia. The Russian people should recognise the backbone of the state. The destruction of the Russian people entails a loss of other nations and nationalities living in Russia," reads Zhirinovsky's LDPR's manifesto.

He is for strenghtening immigration restrictions - once famously saying that all Chinese immigrants in Russia's Far East should be expelled - and in a recent op-ed he drew a direct link between issues in "the health, criminal and social sectors" and "the chaos in immigration policy".

The LDPR candidate has called for Russia's health ministry to concentrate on providing citizens with quality healthcare and to have the social services sector handled by a separate ministry. He has in particular highlighted the plight of elderly Russians, who he says are left with little or no savings to address healthcare expenses in their old age.

His party has also called for a state monopoly over the manufacture of tobacco and alcohol.

Zhirinovsky's specific plans for economic policy remain unclear, but he has made repeated statements slamming the government for inefficiency in its management of the economy and pointed to rampant unemployment as being a by-product of both a lax immigration policy and low educational standards in public schools.

Zhirinovsky has slammed the current secondary education system as making "a mockery of education", saying that it does not help young people learn useful skills for the labour market and encourages fraud on standardised tests.

He has called for universities to give students scholarships and for employment to be provided to graduates for at least six months after they complete their degrees.

Zhirinovsky has called for a state assisted social welfare loan system to be revived, allowing young families loans to buy homes at rates of up to two per cent per annum.

He has also called for "the entire youth of Russia" to be given separate apartments by the state.

Zhirinovsky says that Russia's demographic problem is "social, not natural", and is a result of the "constant stress, uncertainty of life and fear for the future", and a direct result of the government not providing enough social support and stable economic conditions to citizens.

He has also proposed options to reduce the number of abortions taking place, and that Russian men be allowed to legally more than one wife in order to address the lack of births.