March 01, 2008	Saturday	Safar 22, 1429

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin on Friday urged voters to turn out for presidential polls and choose a candidate equal to the “complex and large tasks” facing Russia, as pre-election campaigning wrapped up. The outgoing Russian leader said in a televised message that Sunday’s vote was a decisive step in the “renewal of the top governmental authorities”.

He urged Russians to vote, echoing the billboard posters plastered by the electoral authorities all over Russian towns and villages calling on people to go to the polling stations.

Putin did not mention Dmitry Medvedev, the candidate he has already endorsed to be his successor as president and the beneficiary of blanket coverage by the state-dominated media.—AFP