MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. A total of 83.5% of Russians approve of President Vladimir Putin’s performance and another 52.1% positively view the work of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a survey carried out by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center showed on Thursday.
"The approval rating of the president’s activity in October was 83.5% on average, and the average figure for October 23-29 was 83.2%," the pollster said. In September, Putin’s accomplishments were applauded by 82.2% of Russians.
According to the survey, the trust for the Russian president remained high, reaching 52.5% in late October. The trust indicator for Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu was 19.2%, while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev came third with 13.5%.
The anti-rating of trust was topped by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the founder and all-time leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (29.1%). The mistrust for Ksenia Sobchak, Russian socialite and TV host, who announced her plans to throw her hat into the ring for the Russian presidency on October 18, grew over the last week of the month to 6.9%.
"The public opinion reacted to the launch of Ksenia Sobchak’s election campaign with the skyrocketing negative assessments. We may forecast that as the campaign is gaining steam, the politician’s negative image will soar," said Mikhail Mamonov, who heads the pollster’s Political Analysis and Consulting Department.
As many as 600 people in no less than 80 Russian regions are questioned every day in the nationwide poll. The final results contain average weekly numbers, and the margin of error does not exceed 1.9% at the 95% confidence level.