Billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov has the support of 12 percent of voters in Moscow and 11 percent in St. Petersburg, putting him in second place behind the frontrunner, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, according to a survey conducted by state-run pollster VTsIOM.
Putin would win 43 percent of the vote in Moscow and 47 percent in St. Petersburg, according to the survey.
The other three candidates are lagging behind. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov may count on the support of eight percent of voters in Moscow and five percent in St. Petersburg.
Liberal Democratic leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky would gain six and five percent, A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov, four and five percent respectively.
The poll surveyed 1,200 people in each city in January.
Nationally Putin has the support of 52 percent of the voters, according to a VTsIOM poll conducted on January 28. Zyuganov and Zhirinovsky each have eight percent and Mironov and Prokhorov would get four percent each.
Putin, 59, is to seek a third stint in the Kremlin in the March 4 presidential elections. In 2008 he was barred by the Constitution from standing for a third consecutive term and handed over power to his hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev, who is not running this time.
