The Russian presidential candidates have begun campaigning in earnest Monday and have taken part in the first televised debate. But Dmitry Medvedev, the Kremlin-favored candidate expected to win the March 2 election, has refused to take part, choosing instead to chair a presidential council meeting on national social projects.

In this first debate, aired Monday evening on TV Center television. The three candidates fielded questions about their campaign platforms from host Nikolai Petrov were The Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov who is fighting a third election, Liberal Democrats leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Andrei Bogdanov, the little-known leader of the Democratic Party.

with Medvedev miles ahead of his competitors in the polls, in this race getting second place looks tougher than winning it.