MOSCOW, December 13, 2007 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents information on what politicians Russians would advise V. Putin to proclaim as his successor and who they would vote for, if V. Putin nominated D. Medvedev as successor.

Over a half of Russians (57%) identify that they would vote for the politician openly supported by V. Putin in the coming presidential elections (without specifying his or her name). 16% of respondents are most likely to vote for some other politician. 27% find it hard to provide an answer to this question.

The majority of "Unified Russia" voters will also support the "successor" (77% versus 6% who are against him). "Fair Russia" supporters are also more inclined to vote for the presidential contender specified by V. Putin (47% versus 27%). The majority of LDPR supporters, however, will oppose the possible successor (55% would vote for some other politician, whereas 26% will give their vote to Putin's successor). KPRF voters demonstrate the same tendency (51% versus 22% respectively).

18% of Russians mentioned D. Medvedev as the most probable successor. 16% of respondents expected the President to proclaim S. Ivanov as his successor. 14% highly estimated V. Zubkov's chances of becoming the preferred contender. Other presidential contenders were mentioned more rarely, B. Gryzlov (5%), S. Mironov (3%), S. Sobyanin (2%) being among them. 22% of "Unified Russia" supporters, 15% of LDPR, 15% of "Fair Russia" and only 9% of KPRF voters expected D. Medvedev to be proclaimed as successor by the authorities.

Dmitry Medvedev will confidently win presidential elections if V. Putin supports him in the mission, as 57% identify that they would vote for him. V. Zhirinovsky (10%) will occupy the second place in this case. V. Matviyenko will receive 8% of public vote, G. Zyuganov will get 6%. Other opposition leaders do not obtain more than 3% of the vote each: 3% for S. Glazyev, 2% for M. Kasyanov, V. Gerashenko, G. Yavlinsky and G. Kasparov - 1% each. 11% of respondents found it hard to choose one of the presidential contenders named above.

72% of "Unified Russia" supporters, 53% of "Fair Russia" voters and a quarter of KPRF and LDPR supporters would be willing to give their vote to D. Medvedev in this case. V. Zhirinovsky would receive two thirds of the electorate's vote in his own party (65%), whereas G. Zyuganov would get 63% of KPRF supporters' vote.

The initiative all-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on December 8-9, 2007. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.