Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin will win the presidential election on March 4 with 58.6 percent of the vote in the first round, according to a survey conducted by state-run pollster VTsIOM.

“On February 11, we held a survey and forecasted the following: Vladimir Putin will win 58.6 percent of the vote, Communist party candidate Gennady Zyuganov will take second place with 14.8 percent, and Liberal Democratic leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky will come in third with 9.4 percent. Billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov will get 8.7 percent of the vote and

A Just Russia's Sergei Mironov will get 7.7 percent,” VTsIOM Head Valery Fedorov said on Monday, Feb 20.

According to VTsIOM 67 percent of those surveyed said Putin would win after the first round of the presidential election, 20 percent said he would have to go through a second round. The pollster predicts that 0.8 percent of the ballots will be invalid.

55 percent of Russians are following the presidential campaign. The most successful election campaign is that of Vladimir Putin, 30 percent of voters positively assessed his campaign videos.

The debates of Prokhorov and Zyuganov were viewed positively by 13 percent of Russians, Zhirinovsky by 12 percent, Mironov by 11 percent. The Liberal Democrat leader was viewed negatively by 25 percent of respondents. Putin did not participate in any debates.

The poll surveyed 1,600 people across Russia on February 11 and 12, 2012, RIA Novosti reported.