MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. The level of trust towards President Vladimir Putin among Russians over the past week has inched back by 0.6 percentage points to 78.1%, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) said on Friday.

"When asked about trust towards Putin, 78.1% of the respondents answered in the affirmative (0.6 percentage point down over the past week), while the level of approval of the president's activities was at 74.1% (down 0.9 percentage point per week), the pollster said.

The Russian government’s performance is approved by 48% (down 1.1 percentage points), and that of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin by 51.6% (down 1.2 percentage points). That said, 61.2% said they trusted Mishustin (down 0.8 percentage points).

The respondents also expressed their attitude towards the leaders of parliamentary parties. Thus, 30.4% ( down 3.3 points) trust the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov, while trust in Sergey Mironov, the leader of A Just Russia - For Truth was at 29.6% (down 2.3 points). That said, 10.2% (up 1.5 points) backed the leader of the New People party Alexey Nechayev, and 16.2% (down 0.3 points) had faith in LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky.

The level of support for United Russia was at 38.2% (down 0.6 points) while the Communist Party’s rating came in at 10.4% (down 0.3 points). Approval figures for New People stood at 4.9% (up 0.2 points), and for LDPR those stats came in at 8.5% (down 0.4 points), with A Just Russia - For Truth getting a 6% approval rating (up 0.4 points).

The survey was conducted on November 21 through November 27. An audience of 1,600 adult men and women was polled.