Exit polls predict Putin election win
The Russian Prime Minister has taken 58-59% of the vote, the exit polls show.
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Exit polls show Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will comfortably win the presidential election.
The figures, produced by two polling companies, say Mr Putin is likely to win 58-59% of the vote against a carefully screened field of rivals, most of whom have lost to him repeatedly in the past.
This gives a combined of at least 40% to the other candidates. Heading these is communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, who has taken second place with 18%.
Third with 9% is billionaire oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov, who ran on a pro-business platform but has struggled to shake allegations he was a stalking horse for the Kremlin.
Ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky came in fourth with 7-8%, followed by socialist Sergei Mironov with 4-5%.
Opponents of Mr Putin have renewed their allegations of widespread fraud, saying the elections were unfair because of bureaucratic hurdles that kept genuine opposition parties off the ballot.
In a bid to deflect that criticism, Mr Putin ordered a $US500 million programme to install webcams at nearly all of Russia's 95,000 polling places.
Officials, meanwhile, said the turnout was higher than the last presidential election four years ago. This was attributed to the impact of a barrage of pro-Putin coverage on state television in recent weeks.
Official results are expected by Tuesday (NZ time).
Nevil Gibson
Mon, 05 Mar 2012
Mon, 05 Mar 2012
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Exit polls predict Putin election win
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