MOSCOW - A handful of Russia's 106 million eligible voters sailors at sea and reindeer herders in the tundra have already cast their ballots for the first round of presidential elections. The Central Electoral Commission even promised to deliver ballot papers to a group of Russian pilots being held hostage by Afghan guerrillas.
Full scale voting takes place tomorrow. Polling stations open at 8 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. across Russia's 11 time zones.
This means voting begins in earnest on the Chukotka Peninsula, near Alaska, at 7p.m. Irish time today and the polls close in the western Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, bordering Poland, at 8 p.m. Irish time tomorrow. Polling stations have also been set up for Russians living abroad.