Putin’s Support Among Russian Voters Remains Unchanged, Stands at 69% - Poll

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The level of support among Russian voters for incumbent President Vladimir Putin has remained unchanged in mid-March in comparison with polls earlier in the month and stands at almost 70 percent, a poll conducted by Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) revealed on Sunday.

Answering whom of the eight candidates they would support at the upcoming election, 69 percent of respondents chose Putin, the pollster said. The level of support for Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin stands at 7 percent, the same number as earlier in March.

Another 5 percent said that they would vote for head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the poll indicated. His rating continues to gradually fall following altercations with Civic Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak during debates.

Sobchak's support has grown since the beginning of the month by 1 percent and now amounts to 2 points, according to the results.

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The remaining candidates — Sergey Baburin, Maxim Suraykin, Boris Titov and Grigory Yavlinsky — are each supported by 1 percent of Russians or less, the poll revealed.

At the same time, the pollster said that according to the forecast, turnout in the elections will be between 63-67%, which is a significant drop in comparison with earlier forecasts of 71.6 percent.

The poll was conducted by phone on March 5-7 and on March 9 among 4,000 adult Russians with a margin of error not more than 1.6 percent.

The Russian presidential election will be held on March 18, while the campaign officially kicked off on December 18.