Polls point to second term for Putin

The All-Russian Public Opinion Centre forecasts that turnout at the upcoming March 14th presidential elections will make 76%, said the Centre's Director General Valery Fedorov.

The sociologist stressed that incumbent President Vladimir Putin was an absolute leader of the presidential race. If the elections had been held last Sunday, he would have won 71.7% of potential votes.

Fedorov also said there would be not a single right-wing candidate at the elections. In his opinion, the rating of Grigory Yavlinsky of the Yabloko party would make 0.8%, if he ran for president, and of SPS (the Union of the Right Forces) leader Boris Nemtsov - 0.3%.

As for Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Fedorov assessed his chances as being higher than Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov's. Fedorov expects Zhirinovsky to gather 5.4% of votes, and Zyuganov - 5.2%. It is not so much for the insignificant gap of 0.2%, but for the fact that Zhirinovsky is a brighter and more talented politician, he believes.