MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's final pre-election opinion poll has shown that Kremlin front-runner Dmitry Medvedev enjoys the support of 72.9% of voters, the state-run VTsIOM pollster said on Thursday.

The poll results were announced with just over a week left before the March 2 presidential elections. Current Russian President Vladimir Putin is unable to stand for a third term under the Constitution.

"This is about the number [President] Vladimir Putin received in 2004 [71%]," VTsIOM director general, Valery Fyodorov, said, adding that 75% of Medvedev's electorate had voted for Putin in 2004.

Currently a first deputy prime minister, Medvedev was publicly backed by Vladimir Putin as his successor in mid-December, and was later nominated by the ruling United Russia party as a presidential candidate.

Given Putin's popularity, his endorsement of the first deputy premier is likely to guarantee Medvedev the presidency. Putin has also said he will accept the post of prime minister if Medvedev becomes president.

The pollster also predicted Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov would come second with 15% of the vote, and ultra nationalist Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky third with 10.9%. The leader of the tiny pro-Western Democratic Party, Andrei Bogdanov, is forecast to receive just 1% of the vote.

The voter turnout on March 2 will be around 69.7%, the poll said.

The opinion poll was conducted on February 16-17 among a sample of 1,600 respondents in 46 regions across the country, with an error margin not exceeding 3.4%.

Meanwhile, a survey carried out by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) showed that presidential candidate Medvedev has the backing of 49.6%.

The poll also predicted that Zyuganov, Zhirinovsky, and Bogdanov would receive 9.1%, 8.7%, and 0.6% of the vote, respectively.

The survey was conducted on February 16-17 among a sample of 3,000 respondents in 63 regions across the country, with an error margin not exceeding 2.5%.