Page 20 - RusRPTAug19

poll published by the independent Levada Center pollster. The question of who will succeed Putin, the country’s longest-serving leader since Josef Stalin, has grown more pressing as his constitutional term limit approaches. Aides and advisers are working on ways to allow Putin to prolong his rule despite his lagging popularity caused by widespread poverty and unpopular pension reforms. 38%of Russian respondents said they wouldn’t like to see Putin remain president beyond 2024, Levada said Tuesday, an 11% increase since 2018. At the same time, 54% of Russians said they would like for Putin to stay in office, an increase from 51% in 2018. The share of undecided respondents has reached a record low of 8%, dropping almost threefold in a year. The percentage of Russians opposed to Putin’s extended rule reached a record high of 45% in late 2013.
The Levada Center poll showed that the majority of Russians (68%) approve of the activities of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In April and May, this figure was 66%, at the beginning of the year - 64%. 31% of respondents hold the opposite opinion, 1 pp less than a month earlier. With the approval of Dmitry Medvedev’s activities as prime minister, the situation is exactly the opposite: the majority of citizens are dissatisfied with his work (62%), while only 36% approve. A little more (43%) of respondents support the work of the government , 55% do not approve. At the same time, the activity of the State Duma is positively evaluated by 38% of respondents, negatively by 59%. As for the approval of the activities of the Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin , this figure peaked from the beginning of the year - 63%. Another 34% of citizens are dissatisfied with his work. Sociologists say that the number of Russians remains high (41%), who believe that the country is developing in the wrong direction, 48% of respondents are satisfied with the course of the state's movement.
20 RUSSIA Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com