Russia prepared on Saturday to return Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin for a record third term amid a tide of protests unseen since the Soviet era and mounting tensions with the West.
The 59-year-old ex-KGB spy’s victory in Sunday’s presidential ballot at this stage seems beyond doubt.
Forecasts show him storming to a first-round win with 60 per cent of the vote and his Communist rival Gen-nady Zyuganov in second place with 15 per cent. The tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov and the flamboyant but ultimately pro-Kremlin populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky are expected to battle for third place.