Russia's leading independent pollster published Friday its latest poll that showed some 62 percent of respondents believed Vladimir Putin will win the upcoming presidential election in the first round.

According to Levada Center's poll conducted from Feb. 17 to 20 with 1,600 respondents, some 20 percent believed Prime Minister and presidential candidate Putin will win in a runoff. Only 4 percent expected Putin to be defeated.

The poll also showed that some 80 percent of respondents believed Putin will finally win the election, while only 1 to 3 percent believed other candidates will become Russia's new president.

Levada Center head Lev Gudkov told reporters that the runoff is unlikely because Putin might receive 63 to 66 percent of the vote in the first round.

He also predicted that some 15 percent of voters will choose the Communist Party's candidate Gennady Zyuganov, 8 percent for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, 6 percent for billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov and 5 percent for A Just Russia's leader Sergei Mironov.

Another survey from the state-run pollster VTsIOM on Feb. 11 also showed that Putin remained the favorite candidate for most of Russians.

Russia will hold the presidential election on March 4, with five candidates vying for the top job. Among the candidates, Putin is widely expected to win.

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