... terms of personal qualities have dipped. Gudkov said these factors often give a more accurate indication of public sentiment because when asked directly about support for a politician, people generally give the "correct" answer. A May 15 poll showed that, since Putin first became president in 2000, his ratings have dropped from their peaks near the end of his second presidential term to 2000 levels or lower. In the recent poll, 39 percent of Russians said they considered a strong suit...

Rules requiring government officials to disclose income in official reports don't seem to be instilling confidence in Russians, as a new poll by the Levada Center shows only two percent believe officials disclose all sources of income. Rules requiring government officials to disclose income in official reports don't seem to be instilling confidence to Russians, as a new poll by the...

... first-quarter net profit reached $427 million, thanks to the stronger ruble. Severstal, the country's second-largest steel producer, said Thursday that its first-quarter net profit reached $427 million, thanks to the stronger ruble. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the company to post a first-quarter net profit of $318 million, down from $519 million in the year-earlier period. The company, controlled by Alexei Mordashov, also said results at its core Russian steel unit will improve...

... parliament and boosted his powers. He has curbed anti-government protests, sent security forces to investigate civil society groups and sought to limit press freedoms. He is facing unprecedented Western pressure over Tymoshenko's jailing. An April poll conducted by the Kiev-based Razumkov Center showed that the Tymoshenko-Yatsenyuk alliance had about 20 percent support, slightly more than Yanukovych's party, with 17 percent. The poll among 2,008 respondents had a margin of error of 2.3 percentage...

... scenario to materialize grew much weaker because both the authorities and protesters are descending into the sinkhole of a confrontation," he said in presenting the study. Dmitriyev's think tank, the Center for Strategic Research, conducted the polling and analysis in the past three months and produced the study for Kudrin's group of political and economic experts, the Committee of Civic Initiatives. Things could spiral down into violence and chaos if the government responds too harshly to the...

... pension reforms, and the parliamentary majority that obediently supported the president's policy now finds itself in a direct confrontation with the public. Although the guillotine has been outlawed in the country, elections have not, and the presidential poll has turned into a public flogging of the authorities. In the first round of voting, Sarkozy earned the lowest results of any incumbent president of the Fifth Republic. Nonetheless, the gap between the leaders in the presidential race turned out to...

... up more votes. Petropavlovsk had to be in the top 13 spots to win a park; for days, it slid up and down the rankings, hitting second place, then falling out of prize consideration. The crowd on that April evening was dreading a last-minute upset. The polls closed and everyone began to scream. Their city finished in sixth place — only a few thousand votes behind Kazan, which has 1,100,000 residents to Petropavlovsk's 200,000. After two weeks of online activism, the crowd of athletes was ready...

... government's policies remain. The renewal of worries in the euro zone has had an even more damaging impact on investor confidence, hammering the Russian stock market and the ruble as a result of a fall in prices for oil and other export commodities. Economists polled by Reuters in late April anticipated 3.6 percent growth in Russia's GDP for 2012 as a whole, compared with 4.3 percent growth in 2011. Total bank deposits in Russia will increase this year by 12 percent to 15 percent, while total loans allocated...

... and the Kremlin has made it clear that other CIS countries may be welcome to join in the future. The authors of the proposed migration policy also considered the liberal scenario too risky given the known public attitudes. According to Levada Center polls, only 28 percent of Russians supported liberal immigration policy in 2011, while 64 percent favored restrictions. Lifting quotas and legalizing millions of immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus could lead to a surge in nationalist protests...

... effectively denied President Vladimir Putin's inauguration any legitimacy. Putin is an illegitimate president. A legitimate president does not resort to such practices as carousel voting in which the authorities pay busloads of people to vote at multiple polling places. A legitimately elected president does not order thousands of OMON riot police officers to cordon off access to Bolotnaya Ploshchad and close metro stations in the city center to prevent demonstrators from gathering. A legitimate president...

... its share of earnings in Norilsk and noncash items, slumped to $74 million in the three months ended March from $451 million a year earlier. Recurring net profit fell 77 percent to $112 million, compared with an average forecast of $94 million in a poll of eight analysts by Reuters. "EBITDA was below my estimate, net profit was kind of in line, and I don't think it's getting any better in the second quarter, as aluminum prices are falling," Latzer said. Adjusted earnings before interest...

... subjects received more in federal transfers in 2010 than the total of all profits minus losses earned by local enterprises. If you add the 32 million Russians who are pensioners, it is obvious why Russians have such a desire for a welfare state. In most polls on the subject, Russians consistently place high values on the right to free education, health care and support for the elderly and sick. If it wants to end up more than a fringe party, the liberal opposition will need to reckon with this reality...

... state has been little more than a placeholder for Vladimir Putin, who returns to the Kremlin for a third term Monday. “The dominant feeling is frustration,” said Lev Gudkov, head of the Levada Center, the country’s main independent polling agency. Critics maintain that Medvedev’s key promises, to overcome “legal nihilism” and corruption and to diversify the economy, turned out to be empty. The president admitted in his farewell television interview last week that...