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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Medvedev Ahead in the Polls...Surprise?

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's anointed successor, Dmitry Medvedev, has the support of 70.4 percent of the voters and will easily win the presidential election next weekend, a poll on Thursday showed.

Strongly backed by both the Kremlin and state-controlled media Medvedev, who is first deputy prime minister, leads his nearest challenger by a healthy margin, pollster VTsIOM said.

Nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky is Medvedev's nearest rival with 10.7 percent support, followed by Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov at 10.3 percent, VTsIOM said.

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The election is fast approaching in Russia and as early indications showed Dmitry Medvedev is a shoe in. Seventy percent in polls is a large margin over the next closest competitor with only ten percent. The high percentage of support is an example of the power that Putin has over the country by suggesting who the next leader be. For example if President Bush were to come out and say that he supported McCain for the next president, would McCain suddenly be in the lead with 70%? That would most likely not be the case. Because of Putin's pull we must ask ourselves is it because of a high legitimacy of the government or is it out of pure fear?

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