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Russia prepares for key elections

Some 450,000 police officers will be on duty across Russia today to ensure order as voters flock to the 95,000 polling stations set up across Russia's 11 time zones.

Voters are expected to hand a sweeping victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin's party United Russia.

The parliamentary elections come just three months before presidential polls.

From Kamchatka to Kaliningrad, some 109 million voters are eligible to cast ballots today in Russia's fifth parliamentary elections since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Putin is standing as the lead candidate of the United Russia party and has said that a convincing victory would give him a mandate to continue playing a role in politics after he steps down in March next year.

A former KGB officer in power since 2000, Putin has cast the elections as a referendum on his rule, saying that a vote for United Russia would safeguard the country's oil-driven economic boom and stability.

"The result of the parliamentary elections will, without a doubt, set the tone for the elections for a new president," Putin said in a televised address on Thursday that was aired again on Friday.

In his final pitch to voters, Putin urged them to turn out at the polls and vote for United Russia, warning that a vote for his opponents could return the country to the "humiliation, dependency and disintegration" of the early post-Soviet years.

A campaign blackout went into effect at midnight on Friday as required by law, although giant United Russia posters remain prominently displayed in Moscow while those of the 10 other parties are hard to spot.

The opposition has accused the Kremlin of suppressing debate during the campaign by dominating television coverage on state media, confiscating their election leaflets and arresting members.

Former chess champion turned Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov has dismissed the elections as a "farce" and warned that Putin was leading the country toward dictatorship.

After spending five days behind bars this week for taking part in an unauthorized protest against Putin, Kasparov accused the 55-year-old president of resorting to repression to cement his party's dominance.

"Fear is the only chance this regime has to survive," he said.

Polls show United Russia will win at least 62 percent of the vote, with the Communist Party trailing far behind with some 12 percent.
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