Medvedev streets ahead of Russian rivals

In a one-sided election that would make Fidel and Raul Castro proud, Russians go to the polls this Sunday to elect the successor to President Vladimir Putin. Opinion polls show the out-and-out frontrunner to be Vlad's chosen successor, Dmitry Medvedev of the United Russia Party, who has promised to make Putin his prime minister.

Even the head of Russia's electoral commission, Vladimir Churov, has had to admit that not all the candidates have received equal access to the Russian media, with Medvedev everywhere and the others getting barely a look-in. Churov claimed the apparent disparity was reasonable because Medvedev is already the first deputy prime minister and therefore has a high profile none of his opponents enjoy.

Medvedev, 42, is a lawyer by training. As well as being first deputy, he serves as chairman of the state-controlled energy company Gazprom. Like Putin he is from St Petersburg, but unlike his mentor, he has no background in the KGB which means he is sometimes described as a 'liberal' in comparison.

For Russians having trouble finding the names of the alternative candidates, they are: Gennady Zyuganov, 63, a Communist party veteran who believes capitalism is 'barbaric'; Vladimir Zhirinovsky, 61, of the Liberal Democratic Party, though not so Liberal that he isn't an avowed anti-Semite; and Andrei Bogdanov, only 37, whose Democratic Party wants Russia to join the EU.

The best-known potential opponent was former chess champion Garry Kasparov. His Other Russia bloc made a lot of noise at demos last year, but the campaign fizzled out by December.

On the eve of Sunday's election, Medvedev's opponents' chances range from miserable to very bad. Against Medvedev's 82 per cent in a recent opinion poll, Zhirinovsky was on 11 per cent with Zyuganov at six per cent and Bogdanov one per cent.