Dmitry Medvedev, named by Russian President Vladimir Putin last month as his favored successor, launched his personal Internet site on Wednesday.

In links on the homepage of www.medvedev2008.ru, the current first Deputy Prime Minister lists his major speeches, campaign team, news and a gallery of photographs showing the 42-year-old in action on the campaign trail.

His campaign program on the website is a copy of a January 22 speech in which he promised stability and continuity and promised to stay true to his mentor Putin's policies.

A full program is expected after official campaigning begins on February 2.

Photographs on the website show Medvedev standing behind Putin, leaning in to listen as Putin speaks across a dinner table, walking without a necktie next to Putin and standing alone while petting a bunny rabbit.

Russia votes to replace Putin, constitutionally prohibited from seeking a third term, on March 2. Medvedev leads in all polls by an overwhelming majority and is expected to win outright in the first round.

"I'm glad to welcome you to my site. Here you will find materials I consider important. I hope they help you get a sense of my views," the presidential candidate writes.

The pollsters also analyzed the past likely behavior of voters to suggest Medvedev's final support could rise to 74 percent when other factors, such as likely turnout for candidates in past elections, are taken into account.

VTsIOM predicted Communist Party Leader Gennady Zyuganov would come in second place with 12.8 percent and nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky in third with 11.5 percent.

The survey was conducted on January 26-27 among 1,600 committed Russian voters in 46 regions.

Andrei Bogdanov of the tiny Democratic Party received 0.9 percent of the predicted votes.

Amongst confirmed voters, Medvedev's 71.2 percent support towers over the 6.1 percent for Zhirinovsky and Zyuganov's 5.6 percent. VTsIOM said the margin of error was 3.4 percent and anticipates a 70.7 percent turnout on March 2.

Agencies

(China Daily 02/01/2008 page12)