MOSCOW, September 15. /ITAR-TASS/. The results of Sunday’s regional election in Russia prove that the presidential approval rating in the country is high, the head of the Institute for Social, Economic and Political Studies said Monday.

“The results of the election are a projection of the approval rating for the country’s president and the course that he has taken,” Dmitry Badovsky said at the Regions of Russia media forum.

The outcome of the vote could have been forecast already in March when an opinion poll on Crimea’s reunification with Russia showed that over 90% of Russians across the country supported the move, he said.

“The approval rating of President Putin, according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM), has been at around 85 or 88% in the past months. The electoral rating has been at 70 or 72%,” Badovsky said.

This means that in case of a real election next Sunday, Putin would gain around 90% of the vote, the political analyst said.

On September 14, elections of various levels were held in all Russian regions, except for the Republic of Ingushetia. Voters in the country’s 84 federal subjects came to some 64,000 polling stations to elect 30 regional governors, 14 regional parliaments and the mayors of three regional capitals.

About 75 million eligible voters were registered across the country.

The election to the Crimean parliament was held for the first time under the Russian legislation. The United Russia candidates have won over 71% of the vote in the Crimean constituencies, according to the preliminary results, cited by the deputy chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission, Leonid lvlev, on Monday.