Russia’s Presidential Election

With the support of current President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev appears to be the predetermined winner of the March 2, 2008 Russian Presidential election.

All eyes will be watching Russia this Sunday, waiting for the inevitable announcement that Dmitry Medvedev has won the election and will become the country’s next President. Medvedev is the hand-picked successor of current President Vladimir Putin, who is slated to become Russia’s next Prime Minister.

Besides Medvedev, the other candidates are communist Gennady Zyuganov, ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and supposed pro-European Andrei Bogdanov. Mikhail Kayanov was a fifth candidate and probably the biggest threat to Medvedev, but was removed from the ballot for allegedly falsifying some of the signatures he needed to be included in the election. Kasyanov opposes Putin and claims his removal from the ballot was politically motivated.

In all recent opinion polls, a huge majority of voters indicated their intent to vote for Medvedev. According to a survey by independent Levada Center in Moscow, 19% of respondents believe Medvedev will act independently as President, while 63% think he will be under the control of Putin. It appears that people will vote for Medvedev due to Putin’s support of his candidacy, not because they feel he can do the job.

Experts estimate Medvedev will win the election with approximately 2/3 of the vote. Come back next week for complete election results and analysis.