Moscow, Feb 29: Ahead of Sunday's presidential poll, outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin has appealed to his compatriots to vote for the future of the country by making a "conscious" choice in favour of a candidate who would carry forward the policies of change launched by him.

"Russia's forward movement should not stop, changes for the better should be continued," Putin said in his televised address in an obvious effort to lure the voters to back his chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev.

In all there are four candidates for the top Kremlin job, including the Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, fire-brand ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and a political light-weight Andrei Bogdanov of a Kremlin-doctored Democratic Party of Russia.

However, Putin's chosen successor Medvedev, backed by the ruling United Russia and other three loyalist parties, is believed to be the clear winner in the March 2 polls to become the third President of the post-Communist Russia, when the incumbent steps down after serving two consecutive terms of total eight years.

Even as the last public opinion poll predicted over 70 per cent votes for 42-two-year old Medvedev, the Kremlin is not taking any chances as the low turnout would mean a fractured win in the election already falling short of democratic standards set by the old democracies.