considered to be a fallback communist candidate, in case Zyuganov's candidacy faltered. Tuleyev's rhetoric straddled between hard-line communism and social-democracy. Generally a hard-liner, he had nonetheless occasionally taken moderate stances, such as seeking tax cuts. Tuleyev's positions centered upon communism and creating a disciplined (uncorrupt) government. Tuleyev dropped out of the race on 8 June and endorsed Zyuganov. Despite the fact that Tuleyev dropped out of the race before the election, he had already been on the ballot during a portion of the early voting period. Yury Vlasov Politician and former Olympic weightlifter Yury Vlasov ran as an independent candidate. His politics were characterized as nationalist. Vlasov openly espoused antisemitic rhetoric. He promoted himself as patriot fighting both communism and an alleged "Zionist conspiracy" against the Russian people. Vlasov dubbed his politics as "people's patriotism". His campaign platform proclaimed, "There is only one single force that is able to unite almost all and at the same time become the ideological basis of the Russian state – popular patriotism". While he had been a supporter of democratic reforms in the Soviet Union, following its collapse Vlasov had embraced authoritarian political views. Vlasov likened his politics to Gaullism. He claimed that his politics were a more effective unifying force than communist or democratic ideals. While he was nominally an independent candidate, Vlasov's campaign was supported by the People's National Party. However, by the end of the election, many in the party grew dissatisfied with Vlasov's campaign style, believing he failed to campaign aggressively enough. Despite polling at under one percent, Vlasov had stated that he anticipated capturing between six and seven percent of the vote. He swore to refuse supporting either Yeltsin or support Zyuganov in the runoff. Grigory Yavlinsky Grigory Yavlinsky ran as the nominee of Yabloko. Yavlinsky officially accepted Yabloko's nomination on 27 January. In terms of social issues, Yavlinsky occupied the political left. In terms of economic issues, Yavlinsky occupied the far-right of the Russian political spectrum. His ideology most strongly appealed to Russia's population of young intellectuals. Yabloko has been a programmatic party, as opposed to a populist one. This proved to be a weakness for Yavlinsky's campaign, as he and his party opted to maintain their long-established party positions on many issues, rather than reshaping their agenda in order to better capitalize on the political tides. This had also been the case in the preceding 1995 electoral