Putin’s rate rises again

Russian President Vladimir Putin's popularity has increased over the first year of his presidency. A recent poll found that 82% of Russians approve of Putin's work as compared to 76% a year ago. Another 5% think that the president deserves top marks for his work (4% last April). 31% say his work is "good" (31%), and 46% assess his work as "satisfactory" (41%). These figures were provided on Thursday by the Public Opinion Foundation-the results of a poll of urban and rural Russians conducted on March 17, several days before the March 26 anniversary of Putin's election a year ago. A similar survey was carried out on April 28 of last year. In both polls, 1,500 Russian citizens were questioned.