Party of Growth was a liberal-conservative political party in Russia with had representatives in several local legislatures. Created in March 2016 on the basis of the Right Cause party, the party's main policy stances are liberal free market economy, democracy and protecting the rights of the middle class. The party has been led by Boris Titov since its founding. The party was a member of the pro-Putin All-Russia People's Front.

Presidential elections were held in Russia on 18 March 2018. Incumbent president and dictator Vladimir Putin was eligible to run. He declared his intent to do so on 6 December 2017 and was expected to win. This came following several months of speculation throughout the second half of 2017 as Putin made evasive comments, including that he had still not decided whether he would like to "step down" from the post of president, that he would "think about running", and that he "hadn't yet decided whether to run for another term". Different sources predicted that he would run as an independent to capitalize more support from the population, and although he could also have been nominated by the United Russia party as in 2012, Putin chose to run as an independent. Among registered voters in Russia, 67.5% voted in the election.