The Public Opinion Fund survey showed the majority of respondents (53%) thought the March 26 elections would be an important event for Russia, whereas 15% thought the opposite and 32% failed to give a clear answer.
More than half of the respondents (55%) were aware of this Sunday's elections in Ukraine, which experts consider to be a rather high level of political awareness, although the interest in the 2004 presidential elections in the country was much higher, about 80%.
The survey was conducted March 18-19 and included 1,500 respondents in 100 residential areas in 44 Russian regions. An additional poll involved 600 respondents in the capital, Moscow. The margin of error did not exceed 3.6%.
Viktor Yanukovich, who was the main rival of current President Viktor Yushchenko in the 2004 elections, represents the largely industrial and Russian-oriented eastern Ukraine.
Yanukovich's Party of Regions is thought to be leading the plethora of parties, blocs and movements involved in the election race, although orange-clad supporters of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine election bloc seem to dominate political activists in the center of the capital, Kiev.
