Special Report: Russia presidential election 2008

    MOSCOW, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- Russian voters will cast ballots in a presidential election on Sunday to choose a successor to President Vladimir Putin who will step down after eight years in office.

    Four candidates will stand in the poll, including Dmitry Medvedev, endorsed by Putin and nominated by the ruling United Russia Party, Gennady Zyuganov, nominated by the Communist Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky of the Liberal Democratic Party and Andrei Bogdanov, an independent candidate and leader of the Democratic Party.

    Putin is barred from a third consecutive four-year term under Russian constitution.

Russia's Communist Party leader and presidential candidate Gennady Zyuganov (C) meets with supporters in Moscow, capital of Russia, Feb. 28, 2008. Russia's presidential election will be held on March 2. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)  Photo Gallery>>>

    The following is a brief profile of Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov.

    Zyuganov was born on June 26, 1944, in the village of Mymrino of Khotynets district in the Oryol region.

    He graduated from Oryol Pedagogical College in 1969 majoring in Mathematics and Physics, and studied as a part-time postgraduate at the Academy of Social Sciences in 1980.

    Since 1983, he had served as a senior official of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party in charge of state development, humanitarian and ideological issues.

    In 1990, Zyuganov participated in the creation of the RSFSR (the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic) Communist Party.

    Playing an active part in reviving the party since 1991, he was elected Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in February 1993.

    Since January 1994, he has been repeatedly elected to the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly, throughout its five convocations.

    This is the third time Zyuganov runs for presidency after two unsuccessful bids against Boris Yeltsin in 1996 and Putin in 2000.

    He is projected by pollsters to win between 10 percent and 15 percent in the upcoming election.

    Zyuganov, married, has a son and a daughter.