(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - A third of people in Russia would vote for Vladimir Putin in the next presidential election, according to a poll by the Yury Levada Analytical Center. 33 per cent of respondents would back the former president-turned-prime minister in the next ballot.

Current Russian president Dmitry Medvedev is second with 14 per cent, followed by Communist Party (KPRF) leader Gennady Zyuganov with four per cent, and Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky with three per cent. Almost half of respondents are undecided, or would vote for other candidates.

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.

Last month, a military conflict broke out between Russia and Georgia over the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where many Russian citizens live. On Aug. 8, Georgian forces entered South Ossetia to assert sovereignty over the region, and Russia responded with a full military operation that saw Russian soldiers take control of Georgian territory beyond South Ossetia. A ceasefire was later brokered by the European Union (EU). On Aug. 26, Russia formally acknowledged the independence of the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

On Sept. 11, Putin said that Russia had no choice but to respond to Georgia’s incursion in South Ossetia, asking, "How did people expect Russia to react, with slingshots?", and adding, "Did they expect the president to brandish a penknife? (...) What else could we do? Do you think we should have wiped the bloody snot away and hung our heads?"

Polling Data

If the presidential election took place this Sunday, who would you vote for? (Open-ended)

Source: Yury Levada Analytical Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,600 Russian adults, conducted from Aug. 15 to Aug. 18, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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