MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s weekly average approval rating has soared to a record high since the beginning of the year, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center said in a statement commenting on its daily polls.

According to the survey results, during the last week of February, Putin’s credibility rating rose from 51.1% to 52.6%.

Among those ranking high in the credibility ratings, the president is followed by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (according to the poll’s results, 21.1% of respondents trust him compared to 16.4% a week before) and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (with an approval rating of 18.4% compared to 17.9% the week before last).

The president’s approval rating was 86.1% in the last week of February. "It is the highest weekly rate recorded this year," the pollster’s statement reads. By comparison, in the first week of February, as many as 85% of those polled said they trusted the head of state, while in January, the rate remained the same.

As for the prime minister, 60.7% of respondents praised his activities, while in the beginning of February that figure came to 57.4%. The government’s approval rating has also grown from 60.9% to 64%.

The daily polls are conducted among 600 respondents residing in at least 80 regions of Russia, results represent an average rating based on seven-day polls involving a total of 4,200 people, with a margin of error of 95% certainty, not exceeding 1.9%.