58% of Russians want President to bring back Russia's superpower status

Most Russians (58%) want the winner of the upcoming presidential elections to reestablish Russia's superpower status. This was the result of a survey of 1,584 people carried out by the VTsIOM agency on January 9-13.

Also, 48% of respondents said they want the president they vote for to ensure that ordinary people receive a proper income while 45% want the president to enforce more law and order and 43% are hoping to see an end to the war in Chechnya. 39% want the government to have a more direct role in economics while 38% want reforms to continue although with greater attention to people's social welfare.

The agency's experts say that expectations have hardly changed since Vladimir Putin was elected president four years ago. The only real difference is that 9% less people are hopeful that the president will manage to reinforce law and order in the country and 7% less people expect the president to take steps to end the war in Chechnya. In 2000 people's greatest expectation was an end to the war in Chechnya whereas this time people want the president to reestablish Russia's superpower status.

There is a 3.4% margin of error.