MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Russians have named President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as politicians of the year for 2022 in a poll conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center.

"The top three Russian politicians of 2022, according to Russians are Vladimir Putin (55%), Mikhail Mishustin (21%) and Sergey Lavrov (13%)," according to the survey published on Wednesday.

The Russian president has consistently topped the rating throughout the survey’s existence (since 2006), sociologists said. "In the December polls, he was named by every second Russian (53%). The maximum was in 2014-15 at 71-74%," the study notes.

After Putin, Mikhail Mishustin, the head of the Russian government, lags significantly behind. "One in five respondents (21%) consider him to be the politician of 2022. The prime minister is in the top three for the third year in a row - since joining the government in 2020," the pollster’s survey showed.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds third place (13%). One in ten respondents named Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu as the politician of the year (10%). The late Vladimir Zhirinovsky, founder of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, also appeared on this list (5%). A quarter of Russians found it difficult to name a politician of 2022 (25%). Another 7% said there were no such politicians.

The telephone poll among 1,600 adult Russians was conducted on December 24 and 27, 2022.