When asked, "if you were to take part in the presidential election, which candidate would you vote for?" 63.5 percent said they would cast their ballots for Putin. Head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and presidential hopeful Vladimir Zhirinovsky would be supported by 7.3 percent, while Pavel Grudinin from the Communist Party would gain the support of 6.2 percent of voters, according to the poll.
The FOM, a Russian non-governmental organization conducting social surveys, specified that presidential hopeful Ksenia Sobchak nominated by the liberal Civil Initiative party would receive 1.1 percent of votes, Grigory Yavlinsky, the co-founder of the Yabloko Party, would be backed by 0.8 percent. Sergey Baburin from the All-People's Union party, the Communists of Russia party chairman Maxim Suraykin and Presidential Commissioner for Entrepreneurs’ Rights Boris Titov would each gain 0.2 percent of votes.
A total of 6.2 percent of voters said that they would not go to the polls, while 13.3 percent of Russians found it difficult to answer the question.
The poll was based on the research data of the FOM LLC commissioned by the Public Opinion Foundation and was conducted on February 24-25 in 73 Russian federal subjects among 3,00 respondents aged over 18 years old. The research was based on an interview method of data collection, with the margin of error being no higher than 2.5 percent.
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Apart from Putin, who is running as an independent candidate, seven other people are running for president this year: Sergey Baburin from the All-People's Union party, Communist Party candidate Pavel Grudinin, head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Civil Initiative party candidate Ksenia Sobchak, Communists of Russia party Chairman Maxim Suraykin, business ombudsman Boris Titov, and co-founder of the Yabloko Party Grigory Yavlinsky.
