Russians see no "worthy rival" to Putin in presidential elections - poll
MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) - Seventy-three percent of Russian citizens interviewed by the All Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies (VTsIOM) have said they would vote for incumbent President Vladimir Putin if he decided to run in the presidential elections in 2018.
The survey was conducted in 42 Russian regions on May 31-June 1 and involved 1,600 people. The margin of error was 3.4%.
Thirteen percent of respondents refused to support Putin in the country's next presidential elections, and another 14% were undecided, saying they would make their choice depending on the situation in 2018.
VTsIOM sociologists noted that 54% of those polled said they saw no political figure today who would be able to actually compete with Putin in the 2018 polls and did not believe that such a person would appear any time soon (48% in June 2013). However, 27% of respondents expect such a political figure to surface fairly soon, and 8% said there is a political figure capable of competing with the incumbent head of state in the 2018 elections.
Furthermore, the number of Russians thinking that Putin has good political prospects has grown from 40% in 2012 to 69% today. Twenty percent of respondents believe that Putin's political career is already at its highest point, and 5% of those polled claim that Putin's influence and authority are declining (19% in 2013).
