Survey in Kabardino-Balkaria: 58% of balkarians are ready to participate in protest actions

Attitudes towards the upcoming presidential elections and their ability to influence the situation in Kabardino-Balkaria turned to be also quite sceptical. Thus, 57% of respondents are sure that presidential elections are not going to have any real impact on situation in their republic. 13% noticed that presidential elections will have “positive” influence and 8% - “rather positive”. At the same time, 11% expect “rather negative” consequences and 1% - “negative” consequences of presidential elections for the republic. 10% reported difficulties in responding to this question.

Respondents’ answers to a question on “whom would you prefer as the next Russia’s president” revealed high Putin’s popularity among the local population. Poll results indicate that Putin’s official successors continue to lag far behind the current Russian president in terms of popularity. Thus, 56% of respondents prefer Putins as next Russia’s president. 16% are ready to vote for D. Medvedev as Russia’s next president and 11% – for S. Ivanov. Explaining their preferences, respondents stressed that D. Medvedev is “young and intelligent” while Ivanov’s supporters appreciate him for being “competent and smart”. While overwhelming majority of those polled are going to vote for either Putin, Medvedev or Ivanov, some respondents also indicated a number of politicians they would like to have as Russia’s next president. In particular, respondents mentioned S. Shoigu (1%), E. Primakov (1%), V. Zhirinovsky (1%), V. Gerashenko (1%) and D. Kozak (1%). In addition, 1% would prefer to have as Russia’s next president “some foreigner”.

As in case with political parties, significant part of respondents demonstrated generally low awareness about some key Russian politicians, in particular those who don’t often appear on Russian TV, which is the most popular source of news and information in Kabardino-Balkaria. At the same time, politicians who make frequent appearances on Russian TV channels are easily recognizable by the local population. Thus, everybody are well aware not only of the name of Putin, but also of the names of his official successors, leaders of “United Russia” and omnipresent Zhirinovsky, permanent leader of Liberal Democratic Party and showman. In the meantime, many respondents reported problems recalling the names of the leaders of opposition political parties, including longtime Communist Party leader Zyuganov. Quite high number of those polled – 11% - were uncertain about presidential candidate they would vote for, which indicates that this still undecided part of electorate can have a serious impact on ratings of presidential candidates in future.