MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. The percentage of Russians who trust President Vladimir Putin stood at 78.8% in the most recent poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), VCIOM said in releasing the findings of the poll, which surveyed 1,600 adult residents of Russia.

"As many as 78.8% of the survey participants responded affirmatively when asked if they trusted Putin (a 1.2 percentage point drop), while approval of the president’s job performance went down by 0.3 percentage points to 76.8%," VCIOM said about the survey findings.

The Russian government’s job approval rating jumped to 54.7% (a one percentage point rise), while 54.7% of Russians approved of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s job performance (up by 0.2 percentage points). A total of 61.9% of respondents said they trusted Mishustin (a one percentage point drop).

Survey respondents also expressed their attitudes toward the heads of party factions in the State Duma, or lower house of Russia’s parliament. Thus, 30.7% trust Gennady Zyuganov, longtime head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) (a 1.9 percentage point drop); 30.9% trust Sergey Mironov, leader of the A Just Russia — For Truth party (a 1.7 percentage point rise); 17.3% trust Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) (a 1.2 percentage point increase); and 6.9% trust Alexey Nechayev, chairman of the New People party (a two-percentage point drop).

As for political parties, the level of popular support stood at 42.9% for the ruling United Russia party (a 0.7 percentage point rise), 8.3% for the KPRF (a 0.5 percentage points drop), 8% for the LDPR (down 0.6 percentage points), 4.8% for A Just Russia — For Truth (a 0.4 percentage point rise), and 4.3% for New People (a 0.2 percentage point drop).