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Poll shows near 73% of Russians ready to vote for Putin in presidential election

The Russian presidential election will take place on March 18

MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. Over 73% of Russians taking part in a recent poll are ready to vote for incumbent President Vladimir Putin in the upcoming presidential election, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center said in a statement. The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and the Russian Communist Party’s candidate, Pavel Grudinin, share the second place, with 6.1% each.

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Nearly three-quarters of Russia’s voters ready to cast ballots for Putin — poll

"According to the polls conducted on January 11-15, as many as 73.2% of Russians are ready to give their votes to Vladimir Putin, while Pavel Grudinin and Vladimir Zhirinovsky may expect to receive 6.1% of the vote each," the statement reads. "Ksenia Sobchak is likely to gain 1.2% of the vote, Grigory Yavlinsky may garner 0.8% and Boris Titov in expected to receive 0.3%," the pollster said. According to the poll’s results, Grudinin’s position has weakened, while Zhirinovsky has attracted new supporters: a poll carried out on January 8-10 showed that 7.2% of those surveyed were ready to vote for Grudinin, and 4.7% were willing to give their votes to Zhirinovsky.

"Voters have got to know the Communist Party’s billionaire candidate better thanks to the media and social networks, so they began to have doubts about whether he was worth their trust. As a result, Grudinin’s rating started to drop, so he is no more ahead of Zhirinovsky but shares the second place with him," Director General of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center Valery Fyodorov said, commenting on the recent poll’s outcome.

A poll conducted by the Public Opinion foundation has produced results similar to those shown by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center’s survey: 65.9% of people participating in the poll said they were ready to vote for Putin, 6.2% supported Grudinin and 6% said they would vote for Zhirinovsky.

The Russian presidential election will take place on March 18. The nomination process concluded on January 12. A total of 17 people are currently participating in the election campaign, including two independent contenders - incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin and Kostroma regional parliament member Vladimir Mikhailov. Two candidates nominated by parliamentary parties - Zhirinovsky and Grudinin - have already been registered by the Central Election Commission.

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