Russia goes to polls: Vladimir Putin set for a fourth term as President

Russia was set to elect Vladimir Putin to a historic fourth Kremlin term, as the country faces increasing isolation over a spy poisoning in Britain and a fresh round of US sanctions.

Since taking power 18 years ago, Putin has stamped his total authority on the country, silencing opposition and reasserting Moscow's lost might abroad.

Polling at around 70 per cent, the macho leader is sure to extend his term to 2024 despite a lacklustre campaign ahead of a summer when global attention will be glued to Russia as it hosts the football World Cup.
Russians began voting on Sunday in the presidential election in which incumbent President Vladimir Putin is seeking a fourth term in office.

Polls first opened in Russia's far-east at 8 am (Russian time). The polling will open in Moscow nine hours later, BBC reported.

Russians residing in the country's easternmost regions of Kamchatka and Chukotka began casting votes after the polling opened, Xinhua news agency reported.

At least 111 million Russian citizens are expected to cast votes to choose the country's president for the next six years, Sputnik reported.

There is no meaningful opposition in the running, and Putin's fiercest political opponent, Alexei Navalny, has been barred from competing, CNN reported.

Despite a lackluster campaign, the 65-year-old Putin is the clear front-runner.

Putin has sought to use the election run-up to emphasise Russia's role as a major world power, recently boasting of its "invincible" new weapons and continuing Moscow's support for the Syrian regime in a bloody civil war.

Rising tensions with the West over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain, and new sanctions from Washington over alleged election meddling, strengthen the impression of a Russia at loggerheads with the rest of the world.

Russia won't bend over and kneel

"In America and Europe, they are trying to make us bend over and kneel, but we're still standing," Sergei Babayev, a 55-year-old transport manager, told AFP in central Moscow shortly ahead of the vote.

"They promised us a crisis and we stuck it out. That's Putin's main quality -- he is at the core of our state."

Today also marks exactly four years since Putin signed a treaty declaring Crimea part of Russia following its annexation from Ukraine, an action that led to the war in the east of the former Soviet state.

Putin, who has run under the slogan "a strong president -- a strong Russia", has declined to take part in televised debates and shot no new material for his own campaign advertisements.

He is standing against seven other candidates, including millionaire communist Pavel Grudinin and former reality TV host Ksenia Sobchak, but none are polling more than eight percent.

One of the more memorable moments from the campaign came during a debate when Sobchak threw a glass of water over the ranting ultra-nationalist candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky, prompting him to call her a "prostitute" and a "mad fool".

Putin's most vocal opponent, the anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, has been barred from standing for legal reasons and has called on followers to boycott an election he says is a sham.

Authorities, however, are seeking a high turnout to add greater legitimacy to a new term for Putin, who is already Russia's second-longest serving leader since Joseph Stalin.

"These are not quite the elections we see in Western countries," Stepan Goncharov of the independent Levada Center pollster told AFP.

"People are put in a situation where they have no-one to choose from," he said.

"If they want to express their disapproval, then they don't turn out. They think of it as a vote of confidence (in Putin)."

Sexually charged election campaign

There has been a particular focus on the youth vote, with prizes offered for the best selfies taken at polling stations and a sexually charged online campaign that brands the election as "for adults only".

Meanwhile, students in several cities have been warned they may face problems in examinations or even expulsion if they do not turn out to vote, according to liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

Heads of schools and state enterprises have put pressure on their employees to vote, as in previous elections, in some cases telling workers they should bring in a list of names of friends or relatives who were also going to the polls.

Early voting has already taken place in some remote areas, where local election commissions bring ballot boxes by helicopter and snowmobile.

Overall turnout is expected to be between 63 and 67 per cent, according to official pollsters.

The run-up to Russia's last presidential election in 2012 was marked by protests across the country against Putin's return as head of state after four years as prime minister.

But those demonstrations were quashed and once he was back in the Kremlin a crackdown followed, with activists arrested, the Pussy Riot rock band jailed and draconian new laws criminalising popular protest passed.

Opponents

Russian nationals are electing the country's head of the state among eight contenders -- Sergey Baburin from the All-People's Union party; Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin; incumbent Russian President Vladimir Putin; Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak; Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin; Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights Boris Titov; co-founder of the Yabloko party Grigory Yavlinsky, and head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Sputnik reported.

Polling across 11 time zones

The polling stations will be open from 8 am to 8 pm in every Russian region in accordance with the time zones. Russia has 11 time zones.

The number of eligible voters in Russia equals 108.9 million people as of January 1, 2018, while abroad, the number exceeds 1.87 million people.

Earlier, the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC) carefully checked the number of voters in order to cleanse the voter lists of phantom voters and repeated mentioning of voters, Sputnik reported.

It also cooperated with the Russian Interior Ministry to rule out the double reporting of those who permanently reside abroad being registered in Russia.

The CEC has significantly simplified the voting procedure at the place of one's factual residence.

The residents of Moscow who decided to cast their votes for a presidential candidate and vote on the address of permanent residence registration may choose the most convenient polling station among 3,605 ones, only taking their passports along with.

Those who vote in the Russian capital but are not registered there had to apply until March 12 to any local election commission, multi-service centre or online state services portal, in order to be allowed to vote at a place of residence.

The results will be announced on March 19.