MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. Vladimir Putin’s trust among Russians continues to surge, as the public’s approval rating of his performance soared to a record-high this year of 86.8%, a poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center showed.
According to the survey carried out on December 24-25, trust for the Russian leader has reached 62.1%, compared with 59.2% on December 10-11. The trust indicator for Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu also grew from 11.5% on December 17-18 to 14% last week. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also among Russia’s top three popular politicians with a trust rating of 13.8%.
Over the past week, Putin’s approval rating had also moved up from 85.8% to 86.8%. "This is the maximum level in 2016," the pollster said.
As for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s approval rating, 61.2% of Russians gave his performance a big thumbs up, while the government’s surged to 63.2% compared with 60.9% on December 17-18, according to the survey.
The approval rating of the ruling United Russia party reached 48%.
The poll was carried out on December 24-25, 2016 in 130 populated areas in 46 Russian regions with 1,600 participants. The statistical error does not exceed 3.5%.