Russia on Sunday voted to elect its third post-Communist president with pollsters predicting a cake walk for Vladimir Putin's chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev in the election declared a ''farce'' by the opposition and derided by western observers.

Over 450,000 policemen and soldiers with sniffer dogs and an undisclosed number FSB intelligence officials have been deployed to thwart any untoward incident as the first of 96,000 polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0:30 IST) in Chukotka facing the US state of Alaska across the Bering Strait.

Around 109 million voters across 11 times zones from Asia to Europe are expected to elect 42-year-old Medvedev, ensuring that Putin, who is not elegible to return to office after serving two successive terms as president, continues to wield power in the Kremlin.

Russia to change leadership

Medvedev, currently first deputy premier and head of state-run gas monopoly Gazprom, says he will carry forward policies of the immensely popular Putin, who will hold the post of prime minister under a revamped government.

Under Putin, Russia has witnessed a resurgence in power, prosperity and a relative stability, helped by a massive inflow of petrodollars.

''I have a good mood. The spring has come,'' a beaming Medvedev said today after casting his vote. He is pitted against Communist rival Gennady Zyuganov, firebrand ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Andrei Bogdanov, an obscure Democratic Party leader.

Medvedev's win predicted

Opinion polls predict Medvedev will win at least 60 per cent of the vote and possibly more than 70 per cent, but the credibility will depend on voter turnout.

Election results are expected to start trickle in later on Sunday night.

A low turnout would mean that the vote would be seen by liberals at home and by the West as a fractured verdict.

Chief Election Commissioner Vladimir Churov said initial reports suggest a high turnout in the far eastern and Siberian regions.

''The reports we received suggest that the turnout is more than during December Duma polls and last presidential polls of 2004,'' Churov told reporters. In Chukotka, where the voting closed at 13:00 IST, the turnout was 83 per cent.

Efforts for big turnout

Authorities are sparing no effort to ensure citizens come out to vote to give a greater legitimacy to Putin's successor, with liberal opposition leaders alleging that regional and municipal officials have roped in businesses to lure voters by distributing discount coupons of hi-end shopping malls, organising lotteries and gifts.

In Medvedev's hometown of St Petersburg, popular artists and performers are distributing their autographed CDs and books to the young voters after they cast their vote.

The anti-Kremlin coalition, The Other Russia, has threatened post-election protest marches cross the country, despite an official ban in the capital.

Its leader and former chess champion Garry Kasparov urged world leaders not to recognise Medvedev as the new Russian president as the elections were a ''farce''.

''The world should not recognise the election results... If the leaders of the free world accept Medvedev they will be approving and giving credibility to this farce,'' Kasparov said as he handed over a petition to the Central Election Commission.

Kasparov, who was arrested during an illegal protest in Moscow in December, said activists were firm on holding demonstrations this time too.

''The polls falls short of norms and standards set by the old functioning democracies as not all the candidates were given equal coverage by the state-controlled media,'' former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov said, who himself was not allowed to contest the polls over procedural irregularities.

Polls not so fair?

Only 300 international election observers were monitoring the 96,000 voting stations across the country.

The main European election monitoring body, the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe and its democracy monitoring institute -- Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights -- have refused to send observers due to spat over the curbs imposed by Moscow.

The vote ''can hardly be considered as fair,'' said the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which deployed 25 observers.

Many activists and ordinary Russians claim that workers are being pressured by bosses to vote and that some have been ordered to turn in absentee ballots, presumably so that someone else could vote in their stead.

Medvedev has been formally nominated by four pro-Putin parties -- the ruling 'United Russia', 'A Just Russia', 'Agrarian Party' and 'Civil Force'.