MOSCOW, June 30 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. President Barack Obama inspires the most confidence of all world leaders, while Russian Prime Minster Vladimir Putin's ratings have fallen, a poll conducted by the WorldPublicOpinion.org has revealed.
About 61% of respondents expressed confidence that Obama would "do the right thing regarding world affairs."
In comparison, almost half of respondents said they had little or no confidence in Putin, while approximately the same amount expressed a similar opinion of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Respondents were not asked what they thought of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Thirty-four percent of respondents said they were confident that Putin would "do the right thing."
However, Putin inspired much more confidence in China (64%) and India (65%).
The poll involved around 19,200 respondents in nations making up 62% of the global population, including China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Mexico, Germany, the U.K., France, Poland, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and others.
The poll was conducted on April 4 - June 12. The margin of error was not more than 4%.
Last year, Putin took second place in the poll with 33%, beaten only by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, with 35%. The UN chief came second this year after Obama.
However, last year the poll included support from respondents in the leader's home countries, while this year's survey only took into account answers from respondents in other countries.
The results were as follows (a lot or some confidence / none at all or not too much confidence)
U.S. President Barack Obama (61% / 31%)
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (40% / 35%)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (40% / 38%)
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (38% / 41%)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy (36% / 45%)
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (34% / 50 %)
Chinese President Hu Jintao (32% / 44%)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (28% / 49%)
