Most Russians See No Rifts In Ruling Tandem - Poll
The majority of Russians (71 per cent) believe that there are no differences between President Dmitriy Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, but the number of those who expect rifts within the ruling tandem to widen has also grown (from 9 to 17 per cent), a recent poll by the Levada centre has revealed, Russian news agency Interfax reported on 13 April. The poll was conducted on 18-21 March 2011 among 1,600 adult Russians in 130 population centres of 45 regions of the country, the report added.
The number of Russian citizens who would like to see Dmitriy Medvedev as a presidential candidate in the 2012 election has increased from 14 to 18 per cent in nine months, and those who would like to see Putin in this role fell from 30 to 27 per cent, the poll suggests. Meanwhile 16 per cent of Russians would like to see both among the presidential candidates, and 25 per cent - none.
Those who say that they would like to see Medvedev and Putin among presidential candidates in 2012 are people who trust them the most: young people, people with secondary and post-secondary education, well-off Russians.
Those who say they want to see neither of them as candidates in the upcoming presidential election are mostly citizens older than 55 years (30 per cent), Russians with a low income (32 per cent) and residents of large cities (28 per cent).
The poll also revealed that more Russians still thought that Putin was more likely to become Russian president in 2012 than Medvedev, although the margin between them has decreased from 14 points (38:24) to 8 (38:30). According to the March poll, 36 per cent of Russians expect Putin to return to presidency, 32 believe that he will remain a prime minister. Medvedev's prospects are assessed as being slightly weaker: 33 per cent see him as president after 2012 and 26 per cent - as prime minister.
A quarter of the participants in the poll (27 per cent) believe that citizens will elect president themselves in 2012.
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