Russians vote for new president

Russians are voting in presidential elections, with Vladimir Putin hoping to return to the post after four years as PM.

Mr Putin was head of state from 2000 to 2008, but barred by the constitution from standing for a third consecutive term. He faces four challengers.

Poll officials say turnout is higher than for the last election in 2008.

But opponents have reported widespread violations, with many people voting more than once.

The League of Voters volunteer observer group said it had recorded 3,000 violations in total.

Independent election watchdog Golos said it was hearing reports of so-called carousel voting, with busloads of voters being driven around to different polling stations, in Moscow and the Siberian cities of Novosibirsk and Barnaul.

Opposition blogger and anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny told the BBC: "Grandiose scale of falsifications, especially in Moscow... mass use of carousel voting.

"Putin won't win. He will appoint himself President, an illegitimate president."

The election is being held against a backdrop of popular discontent, sparked by allegations of widespread fraud during December's parliamentary elections in favour of Mr Putin's United Russia party.

Correspondents say there is real debate as to whether Mr Putin remains the best person to lead Russia, or whether the time has come for change.

Polls will be open from 8am to 8pm in each time zone, with the first opening in the Far East of the country at 20:00 GMT on Saturday, and the last in the western Kaliningrad region closing at 17:00 GMT on Sunday.

According to the top election official at the polling station we have been visiting here in Novosibirsk, just over 41% of registered voters had cast their ballots by 2pm local time - the half-way point in voting day. This is higher than expected.

As in the rest of the country, webcams are up and running in the polling station but officials insist they are not needed in this area.

Around the room which houses the large, transparent ballot boxes, observers are sitting, quietly keeping an eye on the voting process.

Novosibirsk, like many cities, has seen an upsurge in people volunteering to monitor the election.

Activists, angered by the evidence of rigging in last December's parliamentary election, organised a training programme which created thousands of new monitors.

The conclusions they and other Russian and international monitoring teams reach on whether this election was free and fair will be critical for the legitimacy of the country's new president.

The interior ministry is bringing 6,000 police reinforcements to Moscow from the regions, according to Russian media reports.

Mr Putin voted in Moscow with his wife, Ludmila. Speaking afterwards to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, he said: "I'm expecting a good turnout, because presidential elections are an important event. I am confident that people will act responsibly".

Mr Putin's main challenger is considered to be Communist Gennady Zyuganov, who is running for a fourth time.

The other candidates are ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, who is standing as an independent, and former upper house speaker Sergey Mironov, from the centre-left A Just Russia party.

If Mr Putin fails to achieve more than 50% of the vote he will face his nearest rival in a run-off.

However, the liberal opposition behind some of the recent protests is not represented.

The so-called white-ribbon movement has attracted more than 50,000 people in recent demonstrations in Moscow and other major cities, after widespread allegations of vote-rigging during elections for the State Duma. Similar numbers attended pro-Putin and pro-Communist rallies.

• Vladimir Putin, 59-year-old ex-KGB spy and current prime minister, former president between 2000 and 2008

• Gennady Zyuganov, Communist Party leader

• Mikhail Prokhorov, billionaire metals magnate turned politician

• Vladimir Zhirinovsky, nationalist firebrand, leader of Liberal Democratic Party

• Sergei Mironov, leader of centre-left A Just Russia Party, former head of the upper house

Mr Putin has responded by announcing a programme to install webcams in each of the country's 90,000 polling stations, but critics have questioned their effectiveness.

"Cameras cannot capture all the details of the voting process, in particular during counting," said a report by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), quoted by the Associated Press.

A joint mission by the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe comprising 250 observers is monitoring the elections.

Meanwhile tens of thousands of Russians have volunteered as election observers and been trained to recognise and report violations.

Are you in Russia? What are your thoughts on the elections? Send us your comments using the form below.

If you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.

Terms and conditions