February 20, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - No opposition presidential candidate in Russia will be able to counter Dmitry Medvedev, according to a poll by the Yuri Levada Analytical Center. 80 per cent of likely voters would vote for Medvedev in next month’s election, down two points since late January.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - No opposition presidential candidate in Russia will be able to counter Dmitry Medvedev, according to a poll by the Yuri Levada Analytical Center. 80 per cent of likely voters would vote for Medvedev in next month’s election, down two points since late January.

Communist Party (KPRF) leader Gennady Zyuganov is far behind with 11 per cent, followed by Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky with nine per cent, and independent candidate Andrei Bogdanov with less than one per cent.

Vladimir 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. Under the country’s recently implemented proportional representation system, only three other political organizations—the KPRF, the LDPR and A Just Russia—elected lawmakers to the lower house.

In December 2007, Putin endorsed Medvedev as a presidential candidate, and Medvedev said it would be of the "utmost importance" to have Putin as prime minister.

On Feb. 15, Medvedev outlined his economic policies, and said his presidency would push for freedom at both the economical and personal levels, stating, "One of the key elements of our work in the next four years will be ensuring the independence of the legal system from the executive and legislative branches of power."

The presidential election in Russia is scheduled for Mar. 2.

Polling Data

If the following candidates participated in the 2008 presidential election, who would you vote for? (Likely voters)

	Feb. 11	Jan. 21	Dec. 24
Dmitry Medvedev	80%	82%	79%
Gennady Zyuganov	11%	9%	9%
Vladimir Zhirinovsky	9%	8%	9%
Andrei Bogdanov	0.5%	1%	--
Mikhail Kasyanov	n.a.	1%	2%

Source: Yury Levada Analytical Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,600 Russian adults, conducted Feb. 8 to Feb. 11, 2008. No margin of error was provided.