MOSCOW, March 4, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data of exit-polls commissioned by All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company and conducted on March 4th at 1000 polling stations across 63 regions of Russia. VCIOM`s interviewers offered the voter anonymously and voluntarily fill in a ballot at the exit of the polling station; the voter indicated sex, age, and who he/she cast a vote for, then dropped the ballot in the box. A total of 159161 Russians were interviewed.

VCIOM exit poll results show that V.Putin won the first round of presidential election gaining 58.3% of the vote. The closest rival, G.Zyuganov, won 17.7% of the vote. The other candidates had more modest results: M.Prokhorov 9.2%, V.Zhirinovsky – 8.5%, S.Mironov – 4.8%. Invalid ballots made up 1.5%.

31.7% of respondents refused to answer.

In the course of the survey the interviewers have encountered a number of problems. Several interviewers were detained by law enforcement officers in Saint-Petersburg and in Moscow region. One of the interviewers was beaten by the observers who also took his documents. No incidents were reported other than these ones.

Below are the results of exit polls (at 20.00 MSK time).

VCIOM exit-polls were conducted on March 4^th, 2012, at 1000 polling stations in 63 regions of Russia. A total of 159 161 were interviewed.

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!