(Angus Reid Globall Monitor) - Dmitry Medvedev is widely expected to win next year’s presidential ballot in Russia, according to a poll by the Yury Levada Analytical Center. 79 per cent of respondents would support the current deputy prime minister in the election.

Communist Party (KPRF) leader Gennady Zyuganov and Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky are tied for second place with nine per cent, followed by former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov of the Russian People’s Democratic Union with two per cent.

Five other prospective contenders—Boris Nemtsov of the Union of Right Forces (SPS), Andrei Bogdanov of the Democratic Party, Vladimir Bukovsky of Yabloko, National-Socialist Nikolai Kuryanovich, and Oleg Shenin of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union—failed to reach one per cent.

Vladimir Putin was elected to a second term as president in March 2004 with 71.31 per cent of all cast ballots. In April 2005, Putin ruled out seeking a new mandate, saying, "I will not change the constitution and in line with the constitution, you cannot run for president three times in a row." The next presidential election in Russia is scheduled for Mar. 2, 2008.

Russian voters renewed the State Duma on Dec. 2. United Russia (YR)—whose candidate list was headed by Putin—secured 64.1 per cent of the vote and 315 of the legislature’s 450 seats. Under the country’s recently implemented proportional representation system, only three other political organizations—the KPRF, the LDPR and A Just Russia—elected lawmakers to the lower house.

Earlier this month, Putin endorsed Medvedev as a presidential candidate, and Medvedev said it would be of the "utmost importance" to have Putin as head of government.

On Dec. 25, Zhirinovsky discussed his campaign, saying, "I need at least $15 million; $5 million for street advertising, $5 million for commercials and $5 million for printed products." The LDPR leader said he would resort to "personal requests" to collect the required funds.

Polling Data

If the following candidates participated in the 2008 presidential election, who would you vote for?
(Likely voters)

Source: Yury Levada Analytical Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,600 Russian adults, conducted from Dec. 21 to Dec. 24, 2007. No margin of error was provided.

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