RUSSIAN MILITARY TV ENDORSES TRUMP...SAYS DEBATE OR NO DEBATE THE KREMLIN NEEDS TRUMP

Image copyright Zvezda TV

Image caption Russian Army TV accuses CNN of faking the poll result

Russian media give the debate top billing, and independent pundits generally say Mrs Clinton had the better of the debate.

Pavel Demidov of the RBC business site says: "Trump failed to come across as a serious presidential candidate, but the Democrats should not drop their guard... as the next debate may be far more difficult for Clinton than the first."

But the major pro-Kremlin TV channels are mainly interested in what the candidates had to say about Russia, with Rossiya 1 saying it was "one of the key topics".

The Defence Ministry's Zvezda TV goes as far as to suggest that CNN's poll "forged Clinton's victory over Trump", a point echoed by pro-government bloggers on Twitter.