MOSCOW, February 28 (RIA Novosti) - Ultra-nationalist presidential candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky has spent more money on his March 2 election campaign than any of the other runners, an election committee member said on Thursday.

Yevgeny Kolyushin said Zhirinovsky, who leads the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), received total funding of 160 million rubles ($6.56 million) spending around 153.9 million rubles ($6.3 million) on his election campaign.

Kremlin front-runner Dmitry Medvedev received the most contribution funds with 190.3 million rubles ($7.8 million), but has managed to spend just 20% of the total, a mere 35.6 million rubles ($1.5 million).

Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov boasted 61.2 million rubles ($2.5 million) in contributions and has just 2.7 million rubles ($110,000) left.

The leader of the tiny pro-Western Democratic Party, Andrei Bogdanov, received just 4.8 million rubles (some $197,000) in contributions, spending 4.5 million rubles ($185,000) on his election campaign.

In line with the Russian law, presidential candidate's campaign funds should not exceed 400 million rubles ($16.4 million).

Russia's final pre-election opinion poll, conducted last week by the state-run VTsIOM pollster, showed Medvedev enjoyed the support of 72.9% of respondents, while Zhirinovsky collected 10.9% and was third behind Zyuganov (15%).

Currently a first deputy prime minister, Medvedev was publicly backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as his successor in mid-December, and was later nominated by the ruling United Russia party as a presidential candidate.

Given Putin's popularity, his endorsement of the first deputy premier is likely to guarantee Medvedev the presidency. Putin has also said he will accept the post of prime minister if Medvedev becomes president.