MOSCOW, October 02, 2007 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents information concerning to what extent does the party leader affect a voter's decision to vote for a party in the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

If Duma elections were to take place this Sunday, more than half of Russians (55%) would vote for the "Putin's party", 6% for "Zyuganov's party", 4% for "Zhirinovsky's party" and 2% for "Mironov's party". Parties headed by any other leader did not manage to collect more than 1% of the respondents' vote. 16% of respondents mention that they would not participate in the elections, whereas 15% find it difficult to identify who they would vote for.

The supporters of the "Putin's party" are considerably more numerous among women than among men - 61% and 47%. "Zyuganov's party" receives the support of both sexes practically in equal measure (6% and 7%), while in the case with "Zhirinovsky's party" man (7%) clearly give it preference more frequently than women do (3%).

More than half of respondents of up to 60 years of age (55-59%) express their willingness to vote for the "Putin's party", whereas every second respondent in the "60+" age group does (49%). At the same time, 16% of respondents in the oldest age group support "Zyuganov's party", 7% of respondents in the group of 45-59 years of age would vote for it, however, among the respondents of up to 45 years no more than 1-3% would. On the contrary, "Zhirinovsky's party" rather enjoys support of the Russians of up to 45 years (5-7%), than among the respondents older than that age (2-3%). 1-4% of respondents of different age groups would vote for "Mironov's party".

46% of respondents with elementary education and 53-58% of respondents with a higher level of education express their willingness to vote for "Putin's party". 15% of respondents with elementary education would give their votes to "Zyuganov's party", and considerably fewer respondents (4-6%) with secondary education or higher would vote for it. "Zhirinovsky's party" and "Mironov's party" obtain practically equal support in the groups of respondents with different levels of education (3-6% for the former and 1-2% for the latter).

Electoral potential of "Putin's party" is the higher, the better the respondents estimate their financial standing: from 44% in the group with low estimation of own financial standing to 57% in the group with average estimation of that factor and 66% in the group best of all provided for. The support of "Zyuganov's party", on the contrary, decreases starting with 13% among with lowest estimation of own financial standing and reaching 1% in the group with high estimation of that factor.

Among the supporters of Unified Russia 90% are willing to vote for "Putin's party". 85% of the electorate of the Communist party, KPRF, would vote for "Zyuganov's party" and only 4% for "Putin's party". Among the LDPR supporters, 79% are willing to give their vote to "Zhirinovsky's party"; however, those who would prefer "Putin's party" are also quite numerous: 9%. And in "Fair Russia" every second respondent (49%) would vote for "Mironov's party", but every third (34%) for "Putin's party".

The All-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on September 1-2, 2007. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.