Eight out of ten Russian citizens vote for Vladimir Putin in a poll ahead of the Russian presidential election. The Kremlin strongman is securing 82% approval rating ahead of the presidential election, according to a VCIOM research center poll published on Monday.

In the vote that will conclude on Sunday, Putin is running another six-year presidential term and he is the undisputed favorite, since the electoral commission excluded every opposition voice. The other three candidates – who either openly support Putin or toe the Kremlin line – are polling between 5% and 6% each, according to the same poll.

State television, watched mainly by elderly people in rural areas, presents Putin as if there is no alternative.

In power for nearly a quarter of a century, Vladimir Putin claims the election is a vote on “the future of Russia.” It presents the invasion of Ukraine as a struggle against Western hegemony, which resonates with a large portion of Russian public opinion.

If Putin gets more than 80%, the result will be his best in a presidential election. In the 2018 elections, he received 76.7% of the votes, while the turnout was 67.5%.

The electoral commission calculates the number of registrants voters in Russia to 112 million. Another two million voters live abroad.