Communist leader may pull out of election

The head of Russia's biggest opposition party is considering dropping out of the race against Kremlin front-runner Dmitry Medvedev to be the next president, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Opinion polls indicate Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov has little chance of winning the March 2 election but if he were to pull out it would create an awkward image problem for the Kremlin by making the contest look one-sided.

The Vedomosti newspaper said it had been told by several members of the Communist Party's ruling Central Committee that 63-year-old Zyuganov was seriously contemplating taking his name off the ballot paper.