Russia set to re-elect Putin today

MOSCOW: Russia is on Sunday (today) is set to elect Vladimir Putin to a historic fourth Kremlin term, as the country faces increasing isolation over a spy poisoning in Britain and a fresh round of US sanctions.

Putin, who has ruled Russia for almost two decades, is polling at around 70 percent and is sure to extend his term to 2024 despite a lacklustre campaign.

In the run-up to the election, he and a compliant state media have sought to reinforce his image as the man who restored stability and national pride after the humiliating collapse of the USSR. Putin has sought to emphasise Russia’s role as a major world power, recently boasting of its "invincible" new weapons and doubling down on Moscow’s support for the Syrian regime in a bloody civil war.

Rising tensions with the West over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain, and new sanctions from Washington over alleged election meddling, strengthen the impression of a Russia at loggerheads with the rest of the world.

"In America and Europe, they are trying to make us bend over and kneel, but we’re still standing," Sergei Babayev, a 55-year-old transport manager, told AFP in central Moscow shortly ahead of the vote.