MOSCOW, June 9 (Itar-Tass) — Following the protest actions the opposition launched in December 2011, the ratings of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev are showing upwards tendencies, said Valery Fyodorov, the director general of the VCIOM polling agency. According to the results of the poll conducted on June 2 and 3, a total of 69 percent respondents support Dmitry Medvedev, and 65 percent support Vladimir Putin. At the same time, as many as 29 percent of the polled said they knew about opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
These results, Fyodorov said, are enough to say that the opposition has failed to ruin the trust Russians show to the president and the prime minister, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta writes. “During the presidential campaign, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev launched a counter attack. The address to the Federal Assembly was worded very carefully, a series of articles was published, rallies in support of the front-runner were organized. All these steps made it possible to augment popular support to the president and the prime minister that much, of course, with due account of the fact that they changed places in May,” Fyodorov was quoted as saying. According to Fyodorov, “someone was drawn to protest actions, someone was inspired, but some people, on the contrary, were frightened off or repulsed.”
According to VCIOM polls from August to December 2011, the Kommersant writes, the president’s and the prime minister’s ratings “were steadily going down.” Thus, Putin, who then was Russian Prime Minister, enjoyed support of 64 percent of the polled in August 2011, and 54 percent – in December. The them President Dmitry Medvedev had the support of 63 percent of respondents in August, and 52 percent – in December.
“December was the bottom point, later the dynamics changed dramatically,” Fyodorov said. In February 2012, Medvedev already enjoyed support of 60 percent of the polled. The figure was 64 percent in March, and 69 percent in May. Putin’s rating reached 65 percent in May.