Medvedev wins Russian election

President Vladimir Putin's chosen candidate Dmitry Medvedev won Russia's presidential election yesterday by a huge margin, according to an exit poll from state-owned pollster VTsIOM.

VTsIOM said Mr Medvedev had won 69.6 per cent of the vote, way ahead of his nearest challenger, veteran Communist Gennady Zyuganov, on 17.2 per cent.

Opinion polls had consistently predicted a huge Medvedev win right from the moment in December last year when Mr Putin picked him as his preferred successor.

Many voters credit Mr Putin with Russia's biggest economic boom in a generation and see Mr Medvedev as the best option to keep their new-found prosperity and guard against a return to the economic crises of the 1990s.

A 42-year-old lawyer from St Petersburg, Mr Medvedev has worked with Mr Putin for 18 years, most recently as chairman of Russia's gas giant Gazprom and First Deputy Prime Minister.

The Kremlin has promoted him as a Putin continuity candidate, though relatively little is known about his political beliefs and priorities.

Mr Medvedev limited himself during the campaign to one, paid-for interview, shunned many foreign media and gave only a couple of programme speeches which mostly stressed continuity with Mr Putin.

Opposition politicians, some of them barred from running, complained that biased media coverage, harassment of challengers and massive official support for Mr Medvedev had turned the whole affair into a farce.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed criticism, saying a forecast high turnout "speaks to the active political participation of the people of Russia and many of them are choosing to vote for a continuation of the changes".

Election officials said turnout was likely to be up to 70 per cent, higher than the 64 per cent recorded in December's parliamentary elections and in the last presidential election in 2004.

Attention will now turn to how Mr Medvedev plans to govern when he takes over from Mr Putin in May.

Mr Putin, by far Russia's most powerful politician, has said he intends to keep influence by serving under Mr Medvedev as Prime Minister, an unusual reversal of roles.

Despite assurances by both men that they enjoy a good working relationship, some analysts have voiced concern about how a two-headed government might operate in practice.