MOSCOW: Russia’s election campaign came to an end on Friday with a massive effort to ensure a high turnout and President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party the firm favourite to win a landslide.

Putin, the lead candidate for United Russia at the parliamentary polls, was to meet top academics after warning in a speech on Thursday unless voters backed his party, the country would face “humiliation, dependency and disintegration.” The elections are being closely watched for signs of Putin’s intentions for the future.

He has already said that United Russia’s opponents were planning disturbances around the elections and were acting like “jackals” by seeking funds from Western governments.

Several parties competing for seats in Sunday’s election and the opposition movement The Other Russia of former chess champion Garry Kasparov planned rallies in Moscow during Friday.

In the far eastern city of Vladivostok, United Russia activists told residents that voting for the party would bring the region major funding for a planned “Russian Island” intended to host a summit in 2012 of the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC).

“A vote for United Russia is a vote for APEC 2012. We’ll build bridges, hotels. We’ll bring order to the city,” said Artyom Parshin, an activist who was distributed leaflets at the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Meanwhile, Kommersant newspaper noted a massive effort by the authorities to maximise turnout at Sunday’s vote and concluded that the Kremlin wanted the election to be a referendum on Putin’s leadership.

The Russian leader is due to stand down after a presidential poll next March and the current Kremlin team is intent on retaining control, analysts say.

Among the gambits being used to boost turnout, the Orthodox Church had been selling railway passes adorned with electoral symbols, while an electrical goods retailer in Saint Petersburg was encouraging people to register for a prize draw at the same address as a polling station, Kommersant said.

“What’s happening proves ever more clearly that the parliamentary elections are turning into a Putin referendum, without any particular legal consequences but with significant political consequences,” Kommersant said.

On Thursday a senior US diplomat rebutted an accusation by Putin that Washington had ordered a boycott of the vote by monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe as a way of undermining the election.

“It is patently untrue. We challenge the Russian government to back up that statement with any degree of evidence,” said US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns in Madrid.

Opposition figurehead Garry Kasparov was released from a police jail on Thursday after serving five days for taking part in a street demonstration.

He vowed to carry on his struggle against the Kremlin and United Russia.

“I’m undeterred in my resolution to fight this regime,” Kasparov said.

Opposition forces have denounced what they say have been a number of breaches of election laws by Putin and United Russia, as well as alleging favouritism for the ruling party in state-controlled media.

The Kremlin has denied the accusations and says the elections will be fair.

Voting will start at 2000 GMT on Saturday in the eastern province of Kamchatka and end on Sunday at 1800 GMT in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave located between Poland and Lithuania.

Putin heads up United Russia’s electoral list and he has said that a strong showing for the party at the elections would give him a “moral right” to maintain influence after his presidential term ends next year.—AFP