Snap Elections Wouldn’t Change Russian Ruling Structure – Poll

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 11, 2016)

If elections were held in Russia next weekend, Vladimir Putin would be re-elected president and the same political parties would be elected to the State Duma, the Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday, citing the results of a recent poll.

The survey carried out by the independent Levada Center pollster revealed that 53 percent of Russians would support Putin’s candidacy if the presidential elections took place the following Sunday.

Among those Russians who intend to vote during the 2018 presidential elections and have already decided on a candidate, there are even more those willing to support the current president – 83 percent.

The other presidential candidates trail significantly behind Putin.

Gennady Zyuganov, head of Russia’s Communist Party (KPRF), would be supported by 4 percent of Russians and 3 percent of respondents told Levada they want to see Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), as Russia’s next president, the poll showed.

Respondents were not provided with a list of candidates and had to come up with the name of their preferred politicians.

The poll also revealed that snap parliamentary elections would not bring any changes to the current structure of the State Duma.

The responses of those who have already decided upon their preferred candidates in this year’s elections indicate that only the current political parties – United Russia, KPRF, LDPR and Spravedlivaya Rossiya – will be able to pass the 5 percent barrier, Kommersant reported.

According to the poll’s findings, the upcoming parliamentary elections are going to be attended by every second Russian.

The poll was conducted Jan. 22-25 among 1,600 respondents in 48 Russian regions with a margin of error not exceeding 3.4 percent, the Interfax news agency reported.

[featured image is file photo]