Medvedev's new role chosen in survey
Alina Lobzina - Moscow News - themoscownews.com - 3.21.12 - JRL 2012-54
New roles for Russian politicians have been found in a poll, which aimed to explore people's "subconscious" vision of the country's prominent figures by matching politicians with their Pinocchio counterparts.
file photo
Even in the magic world of Zolotoi Klyuchik, the Russian version of the Pinocchio tale, the ruling tandem of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, remained inseparable.
The head of the government was chosen as the good puppeteer, Papa Carlo, the hard working father of wooden Buratino, or Pinocchio as he is called in the original version. And the doll itself, best known for its naivety, was best represented by Medvedev, according to Levada Center's survey.
Presidential candidates as fairytale characters
The poll was held in the end of February, about a week ahead of the presidential vote, and all then-presidential hopefuls were assigned a role from Zolotoi Klyuchik.
Evil puppeteer Karabas Barabas would be best represented by nationalist LDPR party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, having received 22 percent of all votes. No other role for any other candidate was chosen by more people.
The long-standing leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyganov, came second after Putin but got just the modest role of Giuseppe, a friend of Papa Carlo (13 percent). Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov got most of his votes (9 percent) as Buratino, and Sergei Mironov, head of A Just Russia, was voted as Basilio the Cat, who pretends to be blind in order to beg in the fairytale.
Head of the liberal Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, who was denied registration in the presidential race, got the most votes (8 percent) as sad clown Pierrot.
Every fifth person voted for Putin as Papa Carlo, and 11 percent cast voted for Medvedev as Buratino.
A glimpse of 'hidden' thoughts
The researchers said the poll enabled them to have a glimpse in the minds of the Russian electorate and its "hidden" thoughts.
"We tried to look at the images of Russian leading politicians that exists in the minds of voters," according to Levada Center's website.
In autumn 2011, the independent agency carried out another poll where politicians were compared with animals. According to that research, Putin was mostly associated with a lion, Medvedev reminded a bear, probably because of his surname which derivates from the animal's name. Mironov, same as in the fairy tale poll, was associated with a tom-cat, and Zhirinovsky had the biggest resemblance to that of a monkey for people surveyed at the time.
Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russian News - Russia
New roles for Russian politicians have been found in a poll, which aimed to explore people's "subconscious" vision of the country's prominent figures by matching politicians with their Pinocchio counterparts.
file photo
Even in the magic world of Zolotoi Klyuchik, the Russian version of the Pinocchio tale, the ruling tandem of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, remained inseparable.
The head of the government was chosen as the good puppeteer, Papa Carlo, the hard working father of wooden Buratino, or Pinocchio as he is called in the original version. And the doll itself, best known for its naivety, was best represented by Medvedev, according to Levada Center's survey.
Presidential candidates as fairytale characters
The poll was held in the end of February, about a week ahead of the presidential vote, and all then-presidential hopefuls were assigned a role from Zolotoi Klyuchik.
Evil puppeteer Karabas Barabas would be best represented by nationalist LDPR party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, having received 22 percent of all votes. No other role for any other candidate was chosen by more people.
The long-standing leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyganov, came second after Putin but got just the modest role of Giuseppe, a friend of Papa Carlo (13 percent). Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov got most of his votes (9 percent) as Buratino, and Sergei Mironov, head of A Just Russia, was voted as Basilio the Cat, who pretends to be blind in order to beg in the fairytale.
Head of the liberal Yabloko party, Grigory Yavlinsky, who was denied registration in the presidential race, got the most votes (8 percent) as sad clown Pierrot.
Every fifth person voted for Putin as Papa Carlo, and 11 percent cast voted for Medvedev as Buratino.
A glimpse of 'hidden' thoughts
The researchers said the poll enabled them to have a glimpse in the minds of the Russian electorate and its "hidden" thoughts.
"We tried to look at the images of Russian leading politicians that exists in the minds of voters," according to Levada Center's website.
In autumn 2011, the independent agency carried out another poll where politicians were compared with animals. According to that research, Putin was mostly associated with a lion, Medvedev reminded a bear, probably because of his surname which derivates from the animal's name. Mironov, same as in the fairy tale poll, was associated with a tom-cat, and Zhirinovsky had the biggest resemblance to that of a monkey for people surveyed at the time.