MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. The level of trust and confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed by Russian citizens rose by 1.1 percentage points (p.p.) to reach 81.8%, according to a new poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) among 1,600 adult Russians.

"As many as 81.8% of the survey participants responded affirmatively when asked if they had trust and confidence in Putin (a 1.1 p.p. rise), while approval of the president’s job performance went down by 0.6 p.p. to 78.3%," VCIOM said in a report discussing the survey findings.

The Russian government’s job performance met approval among 56.3% of respondents (a 0.3 p.p. drop), with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin receiving a job performance rating of 53.9% (down 0.8 p.p.). A total of 64% of respondents said they trusted Mishustin, representing a rise of 1.4 p.p.

Survey respondents also expressed their attitudes toward the heads of party factions in the State Duma, or lower house of Russia’s parliament. Thus, 29.5% trust Gennady Zyuganov, longtime head of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) (a 0.6 p.p. drop); 25.1% trust Sergey Mironov, leader of the A Just Russia-For Truth party (a 0.8 p.p. drop); 18.7% trust Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) (a 1 p.p. decline); and 6.3% trust Alexey Nechayev, chairman of the New People party (a 0.2 p.p. decline).

As for political parties, the level of popular support stood at 42.6% for the ruling United Russia party (a 1 p.p. rise), 8.9% for the CPRF (a 0.5 p.p. drop), 7.7% for the LDPR (down 0.2 p.p.), 3% for A Just Russia-For Truth (a 0.3 p.p. drop), and 7.6% for New People (down 0.7 p.p.).