(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Vladimir Putin is the early leader as voters in Russia ponder their choices for the 2012 presidential election, according to a poll by the Yury Levada Analytical Center. 27 per cent of respondents would vote for the former president if an election took place this Sunday.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Vladimir Putin is the early leader as voters in Russia ponder their choices for the 2012 presidential election, according to a poll by the Yury Levada Analytical Center. 27 per cent of respondents would vote for the former president if an election took place this Sunday.
Current president Dmitry Medvedev is second with 18 per cent. Support is much lower for Communist Party (KPRF) leader Gennady Zyuganov, Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Kemerovo governor Aman Tuleyev.
Russian voters renewed the State Duma in December 2007. United Russia (YR)—whose candidate list was headed by then president Putin—secured 64.1 per cent of the vote and 315 of the legislature’s 450 seats. On that same month, Putin endorsed Dmitry Medvedev as a presidential candidate, and Medvedev said it would be of the "utmost importance" to have Putin as prime minister.
In March, Medvedev easily won Russia’s presidential election with 70.28 per cent of the vote. In May, Medvedev was sworn in as president. His nomination of Putin as prime minister was confirmed by the State Duma in a 392-56 vote.
On Dec. 25, Medvedev called for an overhaul of Russia’s prisons—after high-profile lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in jail while awaiting trial—saying, "Our system of the execution of punishment has not changed for decades. There is no order. We need to bring it about. (…) We have to understand that there is no need whatsoever to slam people into prison at the stage of preliminary investigation for some types of economic crimes, crimes related to tax activities. There’s a need to conduct investigation in accordance with law, to seek to obtain quality evidence and not to extract it with other means."
The next presidential election is scheduled for March 2012. The current constitution forbids a person from serving as president for three consecutive terms, so both Putin and Medvedev are eligible to run in 2012.
Polling Data
If the presidential election took place this Sunday, who would you vote for? (Open-ended)
|
Nov. 2009
|
Aug. 2008
|
|
|
Vladimir Putin
|
27%
|
33%
|
|
Dmitry Medvedev
|
18%
|
14%
|
|
Gennady Zyuganov
|
4%
|
4%
|
|
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
|
3%
|
3%
|
|
Aman Tuleyev
|
1%
|
n.a.
|
|
Other mentions
|
2%
|
n.a.
|
|
Other / Not sure / Would not vote
|
45%
|
46%
|
Source: Yury Levada Analytical Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,600 Russian adults, conducted from Nov. 20 to Nov. 23, 2009. No margin of error was provided.
