Posted on 09/15/2014 3:52:00 AM PDT by goldstategop
MOSCOW, September 15. /ITAR-TASS/. The results of Sunday’s regional election in Russia prove that the presidential approval rating in the country is high, the head of the Institute for Social, Economic and Political Studies said Monday.
“The results of the election are a projection of the approval rating for the country’s president and the course that he has taken,” Dmitry Badovsky said at the Regions of Russia media forum.
The outcome of the vote could have been forecast already in March when an opinion poll on Crimea’s reunification with Russia showed that over 90% of Russians across the country supported the move, he said.
“The approval rating of President Putin, according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM), has been at around 85 or 88% in the past months. The electoral rating has been at 70 or 72%,” Badovsky said.
This means that in case of a real election next Sunday, Putin would gain around 90% of the vote, the political analyst said.
On September 14, elections of various levels were held in all Russian regions, except for the Republic of Ingushetia. Voters in the country’s 84 federal subjects came to some 64,000 polling stations to elect 30 regional governors, 14 regional parliaments and the mayors of three regional capitals.
About 75 million eligible voters were registered across the country.
The election to the Crimean parliament was held for the first time under the Russian legislation. The United Russia candidates have won over 71% of the vote in the Crimean constituencies, according to the preliminary results, cited by the deputy chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission, Leonid lvlev, on Monday.
“The approval rating of President Putin, according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM), has been at around 85 or 88% in the past months. The electoral rating has been at 70 or 72%,” Badovsky said.
This means that in case of a real election next Sunday, Putin would gain around 90% of the vote, the political analyst said."
Even allowing for ballot box fraud and candidate manipulation by the authorities, on the whole, the United Russia landslide wins on Sunday are a reflection of the President's high approval ratings - around 85-88%. That translates into lots and lots and lots of popular votes for his political party. Its something Western politicians can only envy. Obama will not do that well in November.
If it’s real this is on the Russian people
Well of course it is, to some extent. Many Russians think that toppling or limiting the power of the pro-Western government in Ukraine is in their national security interests -- and I'm not sure they're wrong (which isn't to say that invading another country, unprovoked, is morally justified -- just saying that they may be acting in their self interest).
The bigger problem is that Russia's economy is now almost entirely dependent on oil and gas revenues. That gives lots of money to central planners to pay for make-work jobs and generous social programs, but allows for very few productive jobs for Russian citizens. Putin has done nothing to diversify the economy, which means that Russia is in deep s**t if oil prices fall or his production falls faster than the price rises. It's a house of cards -- Russian incomes are up at the moment and their army is on the march so of course they're happy with their government. But that could change on a dime.
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