MOSCOW, January 21, 2007 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents information on how Russians see the personal qualities of the three main presidential contenders - V. Zhirinovsky, G. Zyuganov and D. Medvedev. The data was gathered six months before the start of the presidential elections campaign and before Dmitry Medvedev was proclaimed presidential contender, i.e. a long time before he obtained the status of Vladimir Putin's "successor".

Vladimir Zhirinovsky's most typical qualities are activity, decisiveness, purposefulness, as well as his experience and intellect (he obtained 5.37 to 6.25 points out of 10 for each of these properties). Experience, patriotism, intellect, purposefulness and competence are the qualities most characteristic of Gennady Zyuganov (4.54 to 5.19 points). Youth, intellect, activity, purposefulness and diplomacy are among Dmitry Medvedev's typical capacities (6.70 up to 7.23).

D. Medvedev's personal qualities are more distinguished that those of V. Zhirinovsky and even more so than those of G. Zyuganov. Thus, as far as the "activity" criterion is concerned, the public opinion gives 6.87 to Medvedev, 6.25 to Zhirinovsky and 4.39 to Zyuganov. According to the criterion of "decisiveness", the first deputy Prime Minister receives 6.46, whereas LDPR and KPRF leaders obtained 5.80 and 4.33 respectively. The proportion formed in accordance with the criterion of "purposefulness" looks like 6,84 : 5,62 : 4,67. Estimations of these politicians' intellect total 6,89; 5,37 and 4,88 respectively, whereas their "competence" was estimated as 6,58; 4,91 and 4,54; and their "diplomacy" as 6,70; 4,15 and 4,49.

Medvedev's prevalence like that can be observed practically as far as all characteristics analyzed are concerned. Thus, he also leaves the two of his rivals behind in terms of the "experience" (5,95; 5,52 and 5,19) and "youth" (7,23; 3,04 and 2,65) criteria. When answering the question "who do you want to see President of the country" respondents gave D. Medvedev 5.37, V. Zhirinovsky and G. Zyuganov received twice as little (2.59 and 2.51 respectively).

The initiative all-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on July 7-8, 2007. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.