The majority of Russians (more than 80%) is ready to vote in the upcoming presidential election on March 18, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center said in a statement.
Over 73% of Russians taking part in a recent poll are ready to vote for incumbent President Vladimir Putin. The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and the Russian Communist Party’s candidate, Pavel Grudinin, share the second place, with 6.1% each.
"According to the polls conducted on January 11-15, as many as 73.2% of Russians are ready to give their votes to Vladimir Putin, while Pavel Grudinin and Vladimir Zhirinovsky may expect to receive 6.1% of the vote each," the statement reads. "Ksenia Sobchak is likely to gain 1.2% of the vote, Grigory Yavlinsky may garner 0.8% and Boris Titov in expected to receive 0.3%," the pollster said. According to the poll’s results, Grudinin’s position has weakened, while Zhirinovsky has attracted new supporters: a poll carried out on January 8-10 showed that 7.2% of those surveyed were ready to vote for Grudinin, and 4.7% were willing to give their votes to Zhirinovsky.
"Voters have got to know the Communist Party’s billionaire candidate better thanks to the media and social networks, so they began to have doubts about whether he was worth their trust. As a result, Grudinin’s rating started to drop, so he is no more ahead of Zhirinovsky but shares the second place with him," Director General of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center Valery Fyodorov said.
