May 13, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Two-in-five Russian adults hold positive views on the team that will work under their new prime minister and former president, according to a poll by Bashkirova & Partners. 42.4 per cent of respondents think Vladimir Putin’s cabinet will be better than the previous one, while 44.2 per cent think it will be roughly the same.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Two-in-five Russian adults hold positive views on the team that will work under their new prime minister and former president, according to a poll by Bashkirova & Partners. 42.4 per cent of respondents think Vladimir Putin’s cabinet will be better than the previous one, while 44.2 per cent think it will be roughly the same.

Putin was elected to a second term as president in March 2004 with 71.31 per cent of all cast ballots. In April 2005, Putin ruled out seeking a new mandate, saying, "I will not change the constitution and in line with the constitution, you cannot run for president three times in a row."

Russian voters renewed the State Duma in December 2007. United Russia (YR)—whose candidate list was headed by 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.

On Mar. 14, Medvedev easily won Russia’s presidential election with 70.28 per cent of the vote. On May 7, Medvedev was sworn in as president. His nomination of Putin as prime minister was confirmed by the State Duma the next day, in a 392-56 vote.

Yesterday, Putin presented his 24-member cabinet, retaining foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, finance minister Alexei Kudrin, and defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov. The Russian prime minister declared: "I would like to underscore the fact that we acted from a need to reinforce the performance and efficiency of the government and the potential of its staff by changing and optimizing the executive power structures."

Polling Data

Which of the following views comes closest to your own?

Vladimir Putin’s cabinet will perform significantly better than the previous one	42.4%
Vladimir Putin’s cabinet will perform in about the same way than the previous one	44.2%
Vladimir Putin’s cabinet will perform in a worse way than the previous one	4.2%
Don’t know	9.2%

Source: Bashkirova & Partners
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,500 Russian adults, conducted from Apr. 10 to Apr. 14, 2008. Margin of error is 3.4 per cent.