Russians support Putin, not happy with State Duma – poll

MOSCOW. Feb 21 (Interfax) – Sixty-five percent of Russians approve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s work, the Levada Center told Interfax on Thursday, following a nationwide survey conducted on February 15-18.

Levada Center sociologists said that the approval rating of the Russian president gained three points, as compared to 62% in January.

The approval rating of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was virtually unchanged at 56%.

Russia’s most trusted politicians also include Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (16%), Communist Party chairman Gennady Zyuganov (10%) and Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky (9%).

According to the Levada Center poll, the country’s top ten most popular people include Civil Platform Party leader Mikhail Prokhorov (6%), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia (5% each), Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko (4%), and A Just Russia Party leader Sergei Mironov (3%).

Nineteen percent of respondents said they currently trusted none of the political figures in Russia.

The government’s performance drew approval from 45% of those polled, and 54% took the opposite view. Forty-one percent of respondents said that the situation in the country was developing in the right direction generally, and 42% expressed the opposite opinion.

The State Duma approval rating currently stands at 36% while 61% of Russians disapprove of the Duma’s work, the poll said.

Just over half (51%) of all respondents in 130 settlements in 45 Russian regions said that they were in general happy with their governors (mayor in Moscow), while the rate of Russians who were not happy grew four points to 47%, the survey agency said.