Putin named Russia’s politician of the year, ahead of PM Mishustin & FM Lavrov, as Navalny & Furgal gain support in annual poll
A Russian poll has crowned Vladimir Putin as the politician of 2020, backed by 38% of respondents. The head of state beat out Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin (17%) and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu (15%) to earn the title.
The survey, conducted by the state-funded Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM), also saw veteran Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (nine percent) and long-tome LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky (seven percent) round out the top five. Compared to 2019, the country’s favorite lawmakers remained almost the same, with Mishustin being the only newcomer, replacing his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev, who has dropped out of the leading names.
Of all other political figures, just four received two percent or more of the vote – protest leader Alexey Navalny (four percent), former diplomat Nikolay Platoshkin (two percent), Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin (two percent), and imprisoned former Khabarovsk Region Governor Sergey Furgal. From these four, Navalny and Furgal are notable, given both were elevated into mainstream Russian consciousness this year.
Putin was also the most commonly named person (49 percent) when respondents were asked ‘Which politician would you invite to your New Year’s celebrations?’ with Zhirinovsky and Mishustin coming in second and third place, respectively.
Also on rt.com Expected polling bounce for Navalny fails to materialize as trust rating drops; Putin also down, Communists & Nationalists upThe study was part of WCIOM’s annual end-of-year summary, in which respondents are asked to summarize the year in multiple ways. For example, 61 percent of people named ‘coronavirus’ as word of the year, and 10 percent chose UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov as the leading athlete of 2020.
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