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| Version 4 | Version 5 |
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| Russians vote for new president | Russians vote for new president |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Voting is under way in Russia's presidential poll, bringing to a close Vladimir Putin's eight years in office. | Voting is under way in Russia's presidential poll, bringing to a close Vladimir Putin's eight years in office. |
| Polling stations in the Far East opened at 2000 GMT Saturday, in a vote pitting first deputy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev against three challengers. | |
| Mr Medvedev, the Kremlin's preferred candidate, has promised to make Mr Putin his prime minister. | |
| Observers say the poll's outcome is not in doubt and the only question is the turnout in favour of Mr Medvedev. | |
| Mr Putin, hugely popular because of Russia's economic boom, was barred by the constitution from seeking a third term. | |
| In the run-up to the vote Russia's main television channels gave generous coverage to Mr Medvedev, who refused to debate policy with his rivals. | |
| CANDIDATES FOR POWER Dmitry Medvedev: First deputy prime minister and chairman of Gazprom, endorsed by President PutinGennady Zyuganov: Veteran Communist Party leaderVladimir Zhirinovsky: Ultra-nationalist leaderAndrei Bogdanov: Little-known head of small Democratic Party In pictures: Putin in powerQ&A: Russian elections | CANDIDATES FOR POWER Dmitry Medvedev: First deputy prime minister and chairman of Gazprom, endorsed by President PutinGennady Zyuganov: Veteran Communist Party leaderVladimir Zhirinovsky: Ultra-nationalist leaderAndrei Bogdanov: Little-known head of small Democratic Party In pictures: Putin in powerQ&A: Russian elections |
| The other candidates are: Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Liberal Democrat Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Democratic Party candidate Andrei Bogdanov. | |
| Saturday was declared an official "day of silence", with no campaigning allowed across Russia's 11 time zones. | |
| More than 109 million Russians are registered to vote in the elections. | More than 109 million Russians are registered to vote in the elections. |
| Voting closes in the western enclave of Kaliningrad at 1800 GMT on Sunday. | |
| Apathy | Apathy |
| The BBC's Richard Galpin in Vladivostok says there was barely any campaigning by any of the candidates and there is little excitement amongst the electorate. | The BBC's Richard Galpin in Vladivostok says there was barely any campaigning by any of the candidates and there is little excitement amongst the electorate. |
| But despite the lack of enthusiasm voting has been steady there throughout the day, he says. | But despite the lack of enthusiasm voting has been steady there throughout the day, he says. |
| Mr Medvedev, 42, voted in Moscow, saying "spring has arrived - although it is raining, a new season has come". | |
| Before his rise to power in the Kremlin he trained as a lawyer in St Petersburg, where he also worked alongside Vladimir Putin. But unlike Mr Putin, he has no background in the security services. | |
| There has been very little scrutiny of voting by Western election observers, many of whom stayed away, and there are already reports of irregularities. | |
| Civil servants have been ordered by their managers to vote, and there are reports that police and teachers are under similar pressure, our correspondent says. | Civil servants have been ordered by their managers to vote, and there are reports that police and teachers are under similar pressure, our correspondent says. |
| Western criticism | |
| The main European election monitoring body - from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - decided not to send a delegation. | The main European election monitoring body - from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) - decided not to send a delegation. |
| It said the Russian authorities were planning to impose unacceptable restrictions on its work. The OSCE complained about Russian limits on the number of observers and on the duration of their stay. | |
| In a sign of continuing unrest in the Caucasus, two bomb explosions targeted a police convoy on Sunday in the Russian republic of Dagestan. | |
| Several people were reported injured in the attack in Khasavyurt, near the border with Chechnya. |