Moscow, March 4 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russians started voting Sunday to elect their president for the fifth time in the nation’s post-Soviet history, the first in which the president will serve a six-year term instead of four years like earlier.
Five candidates — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party head Vladimir Zhirinovsky, A Just Russia Party leader Sergei Mironov and the only independent, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov – vie for the Russian presidency in Sunday’s vote.
Putin, who was Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008 and has been prime minister since then, has led the race but may be forced into a second round if he gets less than 50 percent of the vote in the first.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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