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Millions of Russians voted on Sunday to elect a new president, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former president, the strong favorite. Voting ended at 8 pm in each of Russia's nine time zones. Preliminary results were expected to be announced in the early hours on Monday. With Putin, who held the presidency for two terms from 2000 to 2008, widely expected to secure more than half the vote and win directly in the first round, his supporters planned for early celebrations near Manezh Square on Sunday night. If Putin wins in the first round, he will be inaugurated president in early May, replacing the current office holder, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin has promised to appoint Medvedev as prime minister. Authorities in the Russian capital mobilized 16,000 police officers, 14,000 volunteers, more than 4,000 guards and 2,000 police academy students for security on election day. More than 380,000 police officers were deployed for the event across Russia, the Interior Ministry said. Two webcams have been installed in each of the nearly 95,000 polling stations throughout Russia. The $478 million project was a core promise by Putin in the wake of protests against alleged fraud in Russia's parliamentary elections in December. Some 600,000 people had registered on a website to monitor the voting process via the Internet, according to the chief of the Moscow municipal electoral commission. | 
