Opinion polls suggest Putin will receive around 70 per cent of the vote, nearly 10 times the expected vote share of his closest rival.
At the end of his next Presidential term he will have been in power for nearly a quarter of a century, meaning only the Soviet Dictator Josef Stalin will have served for longer.
One voter, explaining their love of Putin, said at a rally: “He is our President. We take pride in him.
“We wish him victory at the election. Our whole family will vote for Putin.
“Putin! Good health to you, beloved President!”
A March 9 survey by state-run pollster VTsIOM said the incumbent was expected to receive 69 per cent of the vote, while Pavel Grudinin from the Communist Party, who had the second highest support in the poll, is only set to get just a seven per cent vote share.
Alexei Navalny, who was previously seen as the biggest threat to Putin, has been barred from standing for President because of corruption charges.
Despite the genuine popularity of Putin, the Russian election has been denounced by many as fraudulent and accused the country’s powerful leader of using intimidation measures to minimise opposition.
Writing in his Telegraph newspaper column during the week, former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, said: “In the election, President Putin will genuinely win it.
“That looks like democracy, and some people in the West, still addicted to lazy thinking, will be fooled by it.
“Of course, most of us know enough to understand that if intimidation and media control are used for years to stifle all opposition of substance, it isn’t really democracy at all.
“And if the same person is elected over and over and over again, it ceases to be democracy, since that relies on a diffusion and rotation of power.”
Some Russians, disenfranchised by Putin’s reign and frustrated at the suppression of democratic opposition, have decided not to turn up to vote.
Alexei Khvorostov, a resident of Krasnodar, in southern Russia, said: “There is no intrigue.
“I do not see any point for me in going to the election.”
A fear of a low turn out is said to concern some Kremlin officials who believe it will delegitimise Putin’s win.
In a national broadcast on TV on Friday, Putin said: “I therefore ask you to come to the polling stations on Sunday, use your right to choose a future for the great Russia that we love.”