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Polls close in Russia election

Politics Materials 2 March 2008 22:23 (UTC +04:00)
Polls close in Russia election

Vladimir Putin's chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is set to win Russia's presidential election by a wide margin, exit polls indicate. ( BBC )

The state-owned pollster VTsIOM showed Mr Medvedev with 69.6% of the vote.

And early results, with 15% of votes counted, put him on 64.5%. His nearest rival was Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, on nearly 20%.

Mr Medvedev, a first deputy PM, was the clear favourite from the start and enjoyed generous television coverage.

His other rivals in the race were nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and little-known outsider Andrei Bogdanov.

Mr Putin has pledged to serve as Mr Medvedev's prime minister.

Turnout was high, at nearly 60%, officials said. But there were also reports that many workers were told to vote by their bosses.

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