A heavy snow hit Moscow less as polling stations were about to open on Sunday morning for the presidential elections due to find a successor for Vladimir Putin. The snow was falling in the first hours in the morning despite weather forecasts of a beautiful, mild day, Gazeta.ru reports.

Polling stations opened at 8.00 a.m to receive some 7 registered million voters in Moscow.

Meanwhile, in the far east the region of Chukotka was the first to vote. By noon local time, some 77% of voters had already voted in the region where billionaire Roman Abramovich serves as governor, according to Ria Novostei.