The Russian Union of Right Forces(SPS) has decided to support acting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential elections on March 26, said the SPS leader, former Russian Premier Sergei Kiriyenko, Wednesday.

A majority of the Union of Right Forces Coordination Council and the Union's parliamentary faction on Tuesday voted to back Putin's bid, said Kiriyenko.

A minority of the Council of the Union of Right Forces and its Duma (the lower house of the parliament) faction decided to support another presidential candidate, Samara Governor Konstantin Titov.

Kiriyenko said that "we do not like everyone who is backing Putin" but "today's decision is of crucial importance."

He said that Putin's remarks in latest weeks gave answers to most of the questions in the SPS program and most of SPS members have confidence in Putin's triumph in the first round of the voting.

He expressed hope that Putin will win in the first round. Otherwise, "an artificial boost" will be given to his main rival, presidential candidate and Communist Party of Russia leader

Gennady Zyuganov, he said.

Samara Governor Titov confirmed this decision. "It smells of a split" in the Union, he said, but shows no intention of withdrawing from the Union of Right Forces Coordination Council.