News / Russia

Russians still prefer Putin as president: Survey

Thursday, 05 March 2015 4:45 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 05 March 2015 4:45 PM ]

Russian President Vladimir Putin walks in as he attends a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 5, 2015. © AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin would secure a landslide victory if a presidential race were to be held this coming weekend, a new survey shows.

According to the opinion poll conducted by the independent Russian pollster Levada Center, 55 percent of respondents said they would vote for Putin if they went to the polls next Sunday.

When asked about the presidential elections due in 2018, 57 percent of those surveyed said they would like Putin to be reelected for another term, while only 25 percent preferred another person and 19 percent were still undecided.

The survey of 1,600 people was carried out in 134 communities on February 20-23.

A recent survey conducted by Public Opinion Foundation revealed that Putin’s trust rating stands at 85 percent, up from 75 percent recorded a year earlier.

The figures have been released at a time that the Russian economy is grappling with different woes.

The United States and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow over what they call Russia’s involvement in Ukraine's conflict. The Russian Federation categorically denies the allegation.

The international credit rating agency, Moody’s, recently cut Russia’s sovereign rating by one step from Baa3 to Ba1, a speculative or junk grade, citing the impact of the ongoing crisis in neighboring Ukraine as well as the decline in oil prices and the value of the Russian currency ruble.

The Russian president, however, has emphasized that the economy will start boosting again, saying, “The economy will grow. And our economy will get out of the current situation.”

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