Putin Poised for Easy Victory

It's a banner day for Vladimir Putin. He'll easily sail to victory in the March 4 presidential election, according to the final big pre-election poll: About two-thirds of voters are expected to get behind him. That means a landslide against his nearest rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who is projected to win 15% of the vote. That means no run-off round. Still, frustration with the idea of six more years of Putin continues to simmer, the independent pollster says, according to Reuters.

"We are seeing a growing crisis of confidence in the authorities which halted during the election campaign, it sort of froze," the pollster notes. Protesters call Putin authoritarian and see the political system as corrupt. After his inauguration, opinion of him would likely fall further, the pollster says. But there's more good news for the prime minister: It seems he's already claimed a new position: Huffington Post blogger. So far, his two pieces have simply been versions of his Russian editorials, the Daily Intel reports. (More Vladimir Putin stories.)