Vladimir Putin took over Russia’s television networks today for the last time before a new President is elected, urging his compatriots to turn out and vote in Sunday’s elections despite the widely anticipated result.

Dmitry Medvedev, who has been anointed as Mr Putin’s favoured successor, is expected to win the election comfortably despite his steadfast refusal to campaign or hold debates with rival candidates.

The last day of campaigning today saw Mr Medvedev hold a closed-doors meeting about police funding, while President Putin ordered another Cold War-style training mission for four Russian “Bear” bombers flying over the Atlantic Ocean.

Similar flights the past few months have triggered Washington and London to scramble fighter jets to shadow the missions.

The Kremlin is determined that turnout in the poll this weekend will reach 65 or 70 per cent to ensure that Mr Medvedev, First Deputy Prime Minister, can claim to have secured a strong mandate of his own.

Mr Putin said today in an address broadcast on all state controlled television channels: “The opinion of each of you is important. I ask you to come to the election... and vote for our and your future, for Russia’s future.

“Everyone has the chance to answer these questions for themselves and at the Russian presidential elections to make their own conscious choice.

“Who will bring to the post of head of state real value for millions of people, for all the citizens of our great homeland?"

The President did not mention any of the candidates by name but there is no doubt in Russia that the population was being urged to go out and vote for Mr Medvedev, a close friend and associate of Mr Putin.

Regional authorities, governors and even factory bosses and employers have been made aware that turnout is expected to be high in each region of Russia.

No explicit order has been issued from Moscow, but it is believed that big factories are expected to ensure that all of their employees vote even if it means the company organising for absentee ballots to be submitted.

Analysis of last December’s elections in Russia turned up evidence of widespread stuffing of ballots as regions competed to return the highest turnouts.

The popularity of Mr Putin, who will be appointed Prime Minister if Mr Medvedev is elected, and the Kremlin’s tight control of Russian media have made the election predictable.

Despite a low-key campaign, newspapers and television have given blanket coverage to Mr Medvedev's visits to schools, churches and today the set of a popular comedy programme.

Mr Putin will stand down as President in May as he reaches the end of his second term, the maximum sanctioned in the Russian constitution. His near-certain successor has pledged to continue implementing Putin-inspired policies with an emphasis on internal stability and increasing Russia’s international prestige.

He has also, however, pledged to reign in bureaucracy, reduce corruption and expand domestic freedoms.

The three other candidates in the race are Gennady Zyuganov, a Communist, the ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Andrei Bogdanov, who claims to represent the liberal democratic opposition but is widely seen as a Kremlin-backed contender.

Two prominent liberal opposition figures, Garry Kasparov, a former world chess champion, and Mikhail Kasyanov, President Putin’s first prime minister who later became a critic, failed to get their names on the ballot.

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