Russians vote for new president

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW

Russians went to the polls on Sunday to vote for a new president.

Nearly 11 million voters are expected to choose a president from among eight candidates.

Some 2 million Russians will cast their votes abroad.

According to early polls, acting President Vladimir Putin is a front runner with 69 percent citizens willing to vote for him.

Pavel Grudinin from Communist Party of Russian Federation is following Putin with a breakaway gap. 7.1 percent voters said they will support him.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky from Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia also made it to the top three with 5.6 percent of votes.

Voting will end on Monday at 2.00 a.m. Moscow time (2300GMT).

Putin is running for presidency for the fourth time.