Putin rides Russia First wave toward election win

Moscow/Yekaterinburg : Russian voters are set to propel Vladimir Putin to another term as president in an election on Sunday.

Opinion polls show Putin, 65, with a commanding election lead, all but guaranteeing him another term that will take him to nearly a quarter century in power -- a longevity among Kremlin leaders second only to Josef Stalin.

“We will withstand this onslaught,” Svetlana Andrus, a ribbon round her neck in the colors of the Russian flag, said during a rally in Moscow in support of Putin. “We will support our country and Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin).”

A March 9 survey by state-run pollster VTsIOM gave Putin, who was first elected president in 2000, support of 69 percent. His nearest rival Pavel Grudinin, the Communist Party’s candidate, is on just 7 percent.

Another candidate, Ksenia Sobchak, a TV presenter and family friend of Putin, has upended expectations by robustly criticizing the Kremlin, but she has only 2 percent support, the same survey showed.

Kremlin officials acknowledge that Putin’s dominance could turn people off voting. A low turnout would dent his legitimacy within the ruling elite, founded in part on his ability to command popular support.

The first politician in years to challenge the Kremlin’s grip on power, Alexei Navalny, is not on the ballot. He was barred because of a corruption conviction. 

Navalny, who uses social media to whip up anger among his mainly young followers over official corruption, is pushing an election boycott.

Voting starts in the far east of the vast Russian Federation at 8 am local time (4 p.m. ET on Saturday) and will roll westwards over 11 time zones, with polling booths in the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad due to close at 1900 GMT (3 p.m. ET) on Sunday.