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Li Yong/Xinhua/Zuma Press Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addresses the media at a polling station in Moscow on Sunday.
MOSCOW—Russians went to the polls in large numbers Sunday as Vladimir Putin sought to cement his political control with another term as president even as poll observers reported signs of widespread violations.
Polls show Mr. Putin is likely to win the at least 50% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff, but he is facing the toughest challenge to his authority since he took power 12 years ago. Opponents have taken to the streets by the tens of thousands in recent weeks in the biggest anti-Kremlin demonstrations since the collapse of the Soviet Union, calling for fair elections and demanding that Mr. Putin step down.
Driven by a new urban middle class concentrated in Moscow, the protests have shaken the seeming inevitability of Mr. Putin's continued control. Though they grew wealthy under Mr. Putin's rule, they are now demanding a greater voice in political life and an end to the Kremlin's stifling monopoly on power.
Photos
Vladimir Konstantinov/Reuters Students fixed voting booths for Sunday's presidential election.
On the Ballot in Russia
Read more about the presidential hopefuls.
Fading Stars
Russia under Messrs. Putin and Medvedev.
Key Dates
Nomination: Candidates from parties that won seats in parliament are automatically registered. Candidates without parliamentary representation must gather 2 million signatures from across all of Russia's 83 regions within a few weeks to get on the ballot.
March 4: The first round of the vote. If no candidate wins more than 50%, a runoff is held.
Runoff: Held within 21 days of the first round between the top two vote-getters from the first round.
May 7: Inauguration for a six-year term
So far, the Kremlin has brushed them off as a discontented minority but has offered to loosen restrictions on the political system after the presidential vote to allow the opposition greater representation. Authorities have rejected their calls for new parliamentary elections, however. Officials and state media have attacked the demonstrators as foreign agents seeking to shake the stability that Mr. Putin has made the hallmark of his rule.
In Moscow, Timur Shakarishvili, a 56-year-old bank worker, and his wife Lyubov said they voted for Mr. Putin. "I trust him," Mr. Shakarishvili said. His wife, a 60-year-old retired industrial technician, added: "He is truly devoted to the motherland and his people."
The couple was dismissive of the young anti-Kremlin protesters. "Those are people who don't work full time and have too much free time on their hands. They're not like the people of our generation, who worked all their lives and never had time to have protests."
Mr. Putin voted at his usual precinct in central Moscow, joined by his wife, Lyudmilla, who has rarely been seen in public recently. A group of topless female protesters from Ukraine later tried to take the ballot box where he had voted, but were detained by police.
Kremlin critics have mobilized thousands as election observers for Sunday's vote. In December, widespread reports of vote fraud in the parliamentary elections catalyzed the demonstrations, which have continued steadily since.
Opposition groups reported numerous alleged violations across the country Sunday, though officials dismissed many of them as groundless. The Kremlin rolled out a $500 million system of webcams at nearly all the 95,000 polling places across Russia, seeking to allay those concerns, but critics said violations seemed to be taking place anyway.
"It can't be said that there are far more [than in December], but not many less, either," said Andrei Buzin, head of vote monitoring at Golos, an independent poll-observer group. But he said that the structure of reported violations was changing, with fewer reports of ballot-box stuffing and repeat voting, and more reports of voters being compelled to support a specific candidate.
In St. Petersburg, however, police confirmed at least one report of ballot-box stuffing.
Nonetheless, officials from Mr. Putin's United Russia party hailed the vote. "Thanks to the conditions for monitoring of the vote that were set up, the March 4 presidential elections can serve as a model for imitation by other countries," Andrei Isayev, a top party official, said in a statement Sunday. "No other country in the world has undertaken such unprecedented efforts to ensure fair voting and counting of the votes."
Pro-Kremlin groups were preparing for victory demonstrations Sunday afternoon on most of the major squares in downtown Moscow. Thousands of extra police were brought in to maintain order, and riot police were stationed in large numbers throughout the center of the city.
Opposition groups plan a demonstration Monday evening to protest the likely results. But some fear that without a strong, unified leader, the Kremlin critics could lose momentum in the coming weeks if the authorities continue to ignore their demands.
Write to Gregory L. White at greg.white@wsj.com and Richard Boudreaux at richard.boudreaux@wsj.com
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