Russians vote in an election that Putin will win, but the Kremlin is looking for a landslide victory

• There's no surprises over who will win Russia's presidential election this coming weekend.
• Incumbent Vladimir Putin is set to win a fifth term in office, keeping him in office until 2030.
• The heavily stage-managed election is not set to throw up any nasty surprises for the Kremlin, which told CNBC months ago that it was confident Putin would win the vote comfortably.

There are no surprises over who will win Russia's presidential election this coming weekend with incumbent, Vladimir Putin, set to win a fifth term in office, keeping him in power until at least 2030.

The heavily stage-managed vote taking place from Friday to Sunday is not expected to throw up any nasty surprises for the Kremlin which told CNBC months ago that it was confident Putin would win the vote comfortably.

That's particularly the case in a country where Russian opposition figures are not represented on the ballot paper or in mainstream politics, with most activists having fled the country. Those that have stayed have found themselves arrested or imprisoned or have died in mysterious circumstances, as was the case with jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The Kremlin denied it had any hand in his death.

In the 2024 election, there's no doubt who will win the vote; Putin's name is on the ballot paper along with only three other candidates who are part of Russia's "systemic opposition": Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, Leonid Slutsky from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) and Communist Party candidate Nikolay Kharitonov.

Seen as token political opponents whose parties are generally supportive of the government, their inclusion on the ballot paper is designed to lend a degree of respectability to the vote, and a semblance of plurality