MOSCOW, March 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating has risen 5 percent in the past week amid the ongoing crisis over the Crimean parliament's plan to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, according to a survey published Wednesday by a state-run pollster.
According to the Public Opinion Foundation, 53 percent of respondents said they would vote for Putin if presidential elections were held this week, as opposed to 48 percent a week ago.
In regular polls during the past year, respondents said they would vote for Putin about 45 to 47 percent of the time.
The data came from the responses of 3,000 people polled on March 8 and 9 across Russia with a margin of error of 2.5 percent.
