http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=45772
http://www.neurope.eu/view_news.php?id=76004

80% of Russians Approve of Putin

Putin’s approval rating still way up there

RUSSIA
14 July 2007 - Issue : 738

Nearly 80 percent of Russians approved of President Vladimir Putin’ s work as Russian president in the first half of 2007, and up to 46 percent are satisfied with how Mikhail Fradkov performs his duties as prime minister, according to a VTsIOM public opinion survey center of 1,600 people across 46 Russian regions in January-July 2007.
If presidential elections were held next weekend, 69 percent of those polled would vote for Putin. All the other potential presidential candidates would get no more than four percent.
Around 40 percent of respondents approved of the Russian government’s
work, 30 percent of the Federation Council’s work, and 29 percent the State Duma’s. The poll also showed that, as of July 7-8, Putin’s public addresses appealed to 31 percent of Russians.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov’s speeches were approved of by four percent of respondents and First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s by three percent. Liberal Diplomatic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s public
appearances received the approval of three percent of respondents.
The number of people trusting Putin reached 58 percent in the first half
of 2007, Medvedev 20 percent, Ivanov 17 percent, and Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu 11 percent.