Putin’s approval rating tops 50%

The approval rating of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin grew by 4 percentage points to 52 percent in the past week, the state-run pollster VTsIOM said on Friday. Gennady Zyuganov gained 1 percentage point and now stands at 11 percent. A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky lost one percentage point each and now have 4, 2 and 1 percent, respectively. Support for for Vladimir Zhirinovsky has been stable, at 9 percent. Two independent candidates - Irkutsk Region Governor Dmitry Mezentsev and Svetlana Peunova, leader of an unregistered Volya party, have zero approval. The survey involved 1,600 respondents in 46 Russian regions. The margin of error is below 3.4 percent.