UPDATE - Nearly 60% Of Russians Say They Trust President Putin - Poll

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 31st July, 2020) A total of 59 percent of Russians trust President Vladimir Putin, a fresh poll by the country's Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) revealed on Friday.

This proportion has not changed since last week, based on the results of an FOM poll published on July 24.

Meanwhile, 32 percent of respondents said that they feel distrust toward the Russian leader, and 10 percent were unable to give a definitive answer. FOM clarified that all figures are either rounded up or down, therefore, their total can amount to 99 percent or, as in the present case, 101 percent.

Putin's approval rating was recorded at 62 percent. By comparison, 25 percent of voters said that they disapproved of the Russian president's performance in office, with 13 percent unable to give a definitive response.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin's approval rating was registered at 46 percent, with 18 percent of voters saying that they disapproved of his performance.

The survey also revealed that 38 percent of Russians assess the government's performance as slightly positive, 44 percent as slightly negative, and 18 percent could not say for sure.

If elections to the State Duma, Russia's lower house, were held this Sunday, 31 percent of Russians would vote for the ruling United Russia party, another 13 percent for the Communist Party, 13 percent for the Liberal Democratic Party, 6 percent for the Fair Russia party and 12 percent for another party. A total of 4 percent said they would refuse to vote.

The poll was conducted from July 24-26 among 4,000 Russian adults. The margin of error was no higher than 1.9 percent.

In a separate poll, the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) found that 66.1 percent of respondents expressed trust in the country's president, a drop of 0.1 percent from last week, with 30.1 percent of people saying they did not trust Putin.

Additionally, 61.5 percent chose Putin from a list of politicians whose political performance they approved, up from 61.2 percent on July 24.

The VTsIOM poll was conducted from July 20-26. In total, 1,600 Russian citizens over 18 years of age were asked for their opinion over the phone. The margin of error of the poll was no higher than one percent, based on a confidence interval of 95 percent.