MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. A rise in the Russian public’s level of confidence in President Vladimir Putin points to growing social cohesion, Institute of Social Marketing Director of Political Analysis Viktor Poturemsky told TASS, commenting on a poll conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center.

The poll, carried out among 1,600 adults in 80 regions of the country on March 21-27, shows that the Russian people’s level of confidence in the president rose by 0.4 percentage points to 81% in the past week. The president’s approval rating grew by 1.1 percentage points to 79%.

"The rising level of confidence in the president makes it clear that Russia’s social cohesion is increasing. There is an understanding that we are up against an external enemy. People can see that Russia’s enemies are beyond the country’s borders, so it’s a natural reaction. It would have been impossible had it not been based on confidence in the authorities and the political system," Poturemsky noted. According to him, all pollsters have recently been recording a rise in the level of confidence in the Russian president.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories and the goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country. Russia’s Defense Ministry stressed that the Russian Armed Forces were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. The ministry emphasized that the Ukrainian military infrastructure was being disabled by precision weapons and there was no threat to civilians.