Russia's protest movement has become more determined and lost trust in veteran opposition figures, a new survey has found.
The share of young people among protest goers has also increased, with 65 percent under 34 years old at the last mass anti-Putin rally on June 12, according to a poll by the state-run polling agency, VTsIOM.
For the poll, VTsIOM interviewed 531 participants of the June 12 protest, which came just over a month after President Vladimir Putin was inaugurated for a third term in the Kremlin. Organizers put the size of the rally, variously, at up to 200,000. Police said only 18,000 turned out.
Established opposition politicians such as the liberal Yabloko party head, Grigory Yavlinsky, have been overshadowed by younger leaders such as Left Front movement head Sergei Udaltsov and Solidarity group leader Ilya Yashin, the study suggested.
But by far the most popular opposition figurehead is anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, with 46 percent of repondents saying he elicited "the most sympathy" - up from 18 percent in February.
Navalny, the founder of the anti-graft website Rospil and shareholder rights campaigner, recently had his home searched by police and spent 15 days in jail last month on protest-related charges.
While 49 percent of respondents said they were unhappy with their living conditions, only 13 percent described their financial circumstances as "bad."
Every tenth rally participant is prepared to take part in "acts aimed at seizing state power," the study said, in what VTsIOM head Valery Fyodorov described as proof of the increasing radicalization of the protest movement.
But sociologist Olga Kryshtanovskaya, whose pollster, the Kryshtanovskaya Laboratory carried out a rival poll at the rally, said only 3 percent were ready for radical action.
Both she and Fyodorov acknowledged their studies were not representative.
None of the opposition leaders contacted by RIA Novosti were available for comment.
