ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: Russian election officials are busy tallying the ballots from Sunday's presidential vote. Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin needs a majority to secure a victory without a run-off. CNN's Mike Hanna joins us now from Moscow with an update on the ballot count -- Mike.</s>MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the very latest on the ballot count, we now have nearly 80 percent of the national vote released, the figures that we have, Vladimir Putin 51.5 percent, second place Gennady Zyuganov 32.2 percent. There is very interesting things in these figures over the past last hour or the last two hours. One is that Mr. Putin has risen by one clear percentage point. Mr. Zyuganov has stayed absolutely static in this particular area. What this trend indicates is that Mr. Putin will become the next president of Russia on a first round of voting. We are still waiting for a final result in Russia's biggest city, Moscow, where we have a result, a preliminary result where 97 percent of the vote was counted. Mr. Putin is way down there, he has some 46.8 percent of that vote, way below that 50 percent. When this number -- when that vote is finished, that count is finished, it will be thrown into the mix. That may affect it slightly, but at this stage it is a statistical probability that Vladimir Putin has won this election on the first round. Mike Hanna, CNN, reporting live from Moscow. Search CNN.com CNNSI.com CNNmoney.com The Web
Latest Results Show Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin With Strong Lead in Presidential Elections