(Reuters) - Vladimir Putin will be elected president in the first round of March's election with more than half the vote, avoiding a runoff that would dent his authority on the eve of his planned return to the Kremlin's top job, a state pollster predicted Monday. 

Prime Minister Putin hopes to convincingly win the March 4 election in order to take the sting out of a growing urban protest movement which casts him as an authoritarian leader who rules through a corrupt and tightly controlled political system.

 

Once cast as Russia's "alpha-dog" leader by U.S. diplomats, talk of anything less than complete victory for Russia's paramount leader was unthinkable before the protests, the biggest of his 12-year rule.

 

Putin is likely to win 58.6 percent of the vote, far ahead of his closest rival, said Russia's Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), which has a history of accurately predicting the results of Russian elections.