75% of Russians ready to vote for Putin at next election — pollster
Thus, Putin’s electoral rating has reached its new high
MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. Three fourths of Russians (75%) said they are ready to vote for President Vladimir Putin if the elections were held next Sunday, the poll conducted by the Public Opinion Fund (POF) said on Friday.
Thus, Putin’s electoral rating has reached its new high. Six months ago, 71% of Russians said they were ready to cast their votes for the incumbent leader.
According to the pollster, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky could count on 4% of votes, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov — 3%, leader of A Just Russia Party Sergey Mironov and former leader of the Civil Platform Party Mikhail Prokhorov — 1% each.
One percent of respondents said they would choose other politicians, 1% would spoil the ballot, and 9 more percent confirmed they would not go to the elections at all.
The poll also found that the majority of those ready to vote for Putin (95%) have a positive view of him.
Around 3,000 people from 204 towns and cities in 64 federal subjects of Russia participated in the poll. Statistical error does not exceed 3.3%.
Head of the Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Research Dmitry Badovsky said that Putin’s electoral rating has been consistently growing over the last year — since February-March 2014, after a coup in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia. Since then, the president’s rating has grown by 30% Putin’s rating has not went lower than 70% over the last six months.
General director of the Center of Political Information Alexey Mukhin said that the results of the poll show that Russians are still interested in Putin as "an effective business executive."
"In the circumstances of anti-Russian sanctions and economic turbulence, Putin’s influence inside the country is not falling, and it happens not only because of external pressure which mobilizes social groups around him," Mukhin told TASS. "It also happens because Russian people see him as a person who can deal with all these social and economic difficulties despite rather complicated conditions," he added.