Opinion poll in the North Caucasus: before december 2007 Medvedev’s rating was 10%

In the North Ossetian Vladikavkaz and in Karachaevo-Cherkessian Cherkessk overall numbers of pessimists expecting “negative” or “rather negative” consequences of the presidential elections turned out to be 20% respectively.

Very high number of those polled in the North Caucasus capitals (11% in total) reported difficulties in responding to that question. The highest number of those who could not provide answer about possible concequences of the presidential elections was in Chechen capital Grozny (14%) and in Karachaevo-Cherkessian Cherkessk (14%). Least number of respondents who reported difficulties answering this question was in Dagestani capital Makhachkala (6%).

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Respondents’ answers to a question on “whom would you prefer as next Russia’s president” revealed still high popularity of V. Putin among the population in the North Caucasus (39%). More specifically, Putin proved to be the most popular in Dagestani Makhachkala (61%), in Kabardino-Balkarian Nalchik (56%) and in the North Ossetian Vladikavkaz (43%). On the contrary, the least number of Putin’s supporteres was identified in Chechen Grozny (only 11%).

It is worth of noting that current Russian prime-minister Victor Zubkov turned out to be the second most popular presidential candidate in the North Caucasus (13%). As with Putin, Zubkov’s popularity was unevenly distributed throughout the region. Zubkov enjoys the highest popularity in the capital of Chechnya (32%) and in the capital of Karachaevo-Cherkessia (29%) while the residents of Dagestani Makhachkala are rather sceptical about him (only 4% of Makhachkala residents were in favor of Zubkov as next Russia’s president).