According to the Izvestia daily, experts said the results of a survey conducted by the ROMIR Monitoring research holding were the consequence of a profound crisis in relations between the authorities and society.
The paper wrote that people were unhappy with their lives and blamed the authorities. But ROMIR researcher Nikolai Popov said the worse Russians thought of them, the more they wanted to believe that there was still someone "good" at the top. This "good guy" is the president.
According to Popov, a total lack of politicians on the current political scene that people would trust more than the current head of state may lead to a situation where "the people will do everything to keep Putin in power and some of the Putin team will eagerly meet these wishes halfway."
However, there is no agreement in society on how to enable the president to stay in power for another term after 2008. In all, 28% of those polled proposed that the Russian Constitution be amended and the article prohibiting someone from being president for more than two consecutive terms be abolished.
Another 10% of the respondents suggested a constitutional amendment to make the prime minister head of state and appoint Putin to this office. A further 10% said they were hoping for the establishment of a Union State with Belarus to be headed by the Russian leader. It did not matter for 12% of the respondents how Putin was kept in power - the most important thing for them was that he remained the president.
A mere 19% of Russians said they believed the president would really dare to amend the constitution. They said he would either ensure fair elections, without trying to influence their results, or appoint a successor, Izvestia reported.
