Results of our studies

IN BRIEF

Russians assess the work of the present government positively. However they do believe that Putin should make staff changes after the inauguration.

MOSCOW, April 5, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing how Russians assess the performance of Putin`s government; whether the government staff changes should be made after the inauguration of V.Putin.

Russians tend to evaluate the work of the government positively (66%). Those who think so are respondents who approve of the work of Putin as prime-minister (85%), supporters of United Russia party (87%) and rural area residents (71%). The share of those who negatively assess the performance of the government is 24%: they are basically those who are satisfied with the work of the prime-minister (64%), adherents of CPRF party (52%) and metropolitan residents (30%).

According to Russians, the current government is one of the most effective ones over the recent decade: 47% of respondents believe that it has performed better than the previous governments (only Putin`s government in 2000 got such a high record - 48%). However the overwhelming majority of respondents think that the present cabinet of ministers is neither better, nor worse (43%). Only 5% consider that the present government performed worse than the previous ones (to compare: the same assessment was given to the Fradkov`s cabinet of ministers in 2005 - 21%).

Those respondents who think that the present government has performed better than the previous governments are supporters of United Russia party (64%) and rural area residents (52%). Adherents of non-parliament parties (64%) and residents of million cities (55%) do not see any difference. Supporters of CPRF party believe that the work of the present government is worse than that of the previous governments (18%).  

The majority of Russians are confident that Putin should make staff changes in the Cabinet of ministers after his inauguration: 40% think that ministers should be partly changed; 37% think that the whole cabinet should be radically changed. Only 10% believe that the government structure should not be changed.

Those who believe that small staff changes should be made are basically supporters of Putin (49%) and United Russia (49%). They also think there is no need to reform the cabinet of ministers (14 and 16%, respectively). Those who think that the cabinet of ministers should be radically changed are supporters of LDPR party (54%) and V.Zhirinovsky (60%), CPRF (53%) and G.Zyuganov (58%), as well as non-parliament parties (58%), and M.Prokhorov (63%).

The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted March 17-18 and April 1, 2012. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.


The work of the government of V.Putin is coming to an end. How would you assess its performance over the recent four years? (close-ended question, one answer)

Total respondents

Moscow and St.Petersburg

Million cities

More than 500 thousand

100-500 thousand

Less than 100 thousand

Rural area

Rather positive

66

58

64

69

64

65

71

Rather negative

24

30

28

23

26

24

17

Hard to tell

11

12

8

9

10

11

12


In your opinion, did the Putin`s government perform better or worse solving national problems in comparance with the previous governments? (close-ended question, one answer)

E.Primakov`s government, March 1999

S.Stepashin`s government, survey in April 1999

V.Putin`s government, survey in June 1999

V.Putin`s government, survey in January 2000

M.Fradkov`s government, survey in 2005

V.Putin`s government, survey in 2012

Better than the previous governments

35

17

33

48

22

47

Neither better nor worse than the previous governments

43

51

45

39

41

43

Worse  than the previous governments

8

13

5

2

21

5

Hard to tell

14

19

18

12

16

5

Note: in the surveys of 1999, 2000 and 2005 the respondents assessed the work of the Government at the time of the survey.

In your opinion, what should Putin do with the present government after his inauguration as president? (close-ended question, one answer)

Total respondents

Putin`s electorate

Zyuganov`s electorate

Zhirinivsky`s electorate

Mironov`s electorate

Prokhorov`s electorate

The government should be kept as it is

10

14

5

4

3

3

A number of changes can be made but most of ministers should not be changed  

40

49

27

24

26

26

Radical changes should be made in the cabinet of ministers

37

26

58

60

50

63

Hard to tell

12

11

9

12

21

8

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!

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