Garry Kasparov has withdrawn from presidency race because of the failure to find a venue for an initiative group meeting. Siberian Light is “a little disappointed that Kasparov used this as an excuse to withdraw”: “The real reason behind Kasparov’s decision to pull out of the race, I suspect, is that he had almost no chance of securing the 2 million signatures needed to endorse his candidacy – and failing in this effort would have been political suicide.”