Current Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin has the support of 53.3 percent of the voters, according to a survey conducted by state-run pollster VTsIOM.
Putin, who is trying to return to the presidency for a third term after serving the last four years as prime minister, needs to win at least 50 percent of the vote on March 4 in order to avoid a second round runoff.
“Putin’s support has been increasing. It is now 53.3 percent, up from 51.1 percent last week and 48 percent a month ago. Communist party candidate Gennady Zyuganov’s rating has returned to 10.3 percent after the decrease that we saw last week," VTsIOM said.
Billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov’s rating has gradually increased, from 2.3 percent of votes in the middle of January up to 4.6 percent at the beggining of February. A Just Russia's Sergei Mironov has seen his support slip from 5.5 percent to 3.3 percent in the past three weeks. Liberal Democratic leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky gets the support of 8.2 percent (7.5 percent last week, 9 percent a month ago.)
Putin is more popular among residents of small towns and villages (56-59 percent) and well-off respondents (59 percent). Zyuganov has the support of 13 percent of Moscow and St. Petersburg residents and 17 percent of low-income voters. Zhirinovsky has the support of 15 percent of voters in Moscow.
The number of voters who say they will not vote on March 4 declined to 9.8 percent.
The poll surveyed about 1,600 people across Russia on February 4-5 2012.
