More than 60% of Russians want Putin to be re-elected president

63% of Russians want Vladimir Putin to be re-elected as president in the 2018 election to continue leading the country, according to a poll.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: Sputnik

The independent Levada Center on November 15 announced the results of a public opinion poll conducted last month, showing that 63% of Russians said they wanted incumbent President Vladimir Putin to be re-elected for another term, 18% said they wanted a different scenario to happen, and 19% refused to give an unclear answer, RT reported.

This percentage has increased significantly compared to October 2012. At that time, a similar survey showed that only 34% of respondents had a positive attitude towards the prospect of Mr. Putin continuing to serve as president for a fourth term. To date, Mr. Putin has served three terms as president.

According to Mikhail Vinogradov of the St. Petersburg Political Foundation, the growing support for President Putin and his policies can be explained by the lingering “Crimea effect,” whereby the Russian leader scored points in the eyes of the people thanks to his decision to annex the Crimean peninsula to Russia in 2014. On the other hand, the fact that Russians are now too tired of politics to follow the latest events or trends closely.

In May, Levada published a list of statistics on public trust in Russian politicians and officials. President Putin topped the list with 80% approval, followed by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

According to VNE