(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has gained an enormous amount of public support this month, according to a poll by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center. 83 per cent of respondents approve of the president’s performance up 10 points since August.

More people also support the work of current prime minister and former president Vladimir Putin. 88 per cent of respondents approve of his performance, up five points in a month.

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. 24, Medvedev became the first Russian president to visit a memorial to victims of the prison camps established during Josef Stalin’s regime. Medvedev called the gulag "a tragic page in our country’s history."

Stalin was the second leader of the Soviet Union, taking over after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. Stalin was responsible for a series of repressive campaigns—known as the Great Purge—in the 1930s. During his tenure, Stalin eliminated all possible political opposition through executions and internal exile.

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev’s performance?

Do you approve or disapprove of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin’s performance?

Source: All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,600 Russian adults, conducted from Sept. 12 to Sept. 15, 2008. Margin of error is 3.4 per cent.

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