MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The Russian public’s level of confidence in President Vladimir Putin has dropped by 0.9 percentage points to 77.2%, according to a poll conducted on July 3-9 and published by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) on Friday.

"When asked directly if they trusted Putin, 77.2% of the poll’s participants said yes (a 0.9 percentage point decline from the week before)," the pollster said. The share of people surveyed approving of the president’s job performance was 73.6% (a 1.1 percentage point decline from the previous week).

A total of 48.4% of those surveyed said they approved of the how the Russian government is carrying out its functions (a 1.4 percentage point drop), while 51.2% approve of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s job performance (a 0.6 percentage point increase). As many as 59.9% of respondents said they trusted Mishustin (a rise of 0.5 percentage points).

As for the leaders of parties represented in parliament, 32.5% of those polled trust longtime Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) leader Gennady Zyuganov (a 1 percentage point drop), 28.5% trust A Just Russia-For Truth party leader Sergey Mironov (a 2 percentage point drop), 16.1% of poll participants trust Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) head Leonid Slutsky (a 2 percentage point decline), and 7.2% said they trusted New People party chairman Alexey Nechayev (a 0.1 percentage point rise).

The level of popular support for the ruling United Russia party stood at 37.9% (a 1.1 percentage point decline). The level of support dropped by 0.1 percentage points to 9.3% for the KPRF and rose by 0.8 percentage points to 9.8% for the LDPR. The A Just Russia-For Truth party saw a 0.4% percentage point fall in its popular support to 4.6%, while support for the New People party rose by 0.4 percentage points to 4.5%.

The poll surveyed 1,600 respondents over 18 years of age.