Poll shows improvement in perceptions about Russian ministers’ work

(Interfax – April 5, 2013) Russians have shown a more positive attitude towards the work of the country’s ministers for the last few months, a survey by the pro-Kremlin All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) has found, the Interfax news agency reported on 5 April. The poll is available on the VTsIOM website, at http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=459&uid=113822

Respondents were asked to assess Russian ministers’ work on five-point scale where one was “very bad” and five meant “excellent”. According to the survey, the approval rating of most members of the Russian cabinet has gone up in the last three months. Thus, since December 2012 the rating of Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu has gone up from 4.16 to 4.19, giving him the best grade in the cabinet. He is followed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whose rating has grown from 3.66 to 3.94, and Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov, whose rating has grown from 3.23 to 3.54 points.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was one of the few exceptions (along with Education Minister Dmitriy Livanov), his approval rating dropping from 3.22 to 3.17 since December 2012.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitriy Rogozin enjoyed growth from 3.23 to 3.4 points in the last three months. Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev had similar results, improving 0.08 points on December 2012 to arrive at 3.2 points in March.

Among the poorer performers were Deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov on 2.96 (compared to 2.84 per cent in December) and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov (2.86 points, an improvement on the 2.74 points he had in December).

Rounding off the list were Agriculture Minister Nikolay Fedorov (2.68, up from 2.62) and Education Minister Dmitriy Livanov (2.6, down from 2.67)

The poll found that Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu was the best known Russian minister: only 14 per cent of respondents said they have never heard anything about him or his work. Sergey Lavrov was next, albeit with quite a gap – more than twice as many respondents (34 per cent) said they did not know anything about the work he does. On the other end of the scale, the minister for relations with the open government, Mikhail Abyzov, is the least well-known of Russian cabinet members, with 71 per cent of poll participants saying they knew nothing of his work.

The survey was conducted on 30-31 March among 1,600 respondents in 130 towns and villages in 42 Russian regions. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4 per cent.