Russian public confidence in the electoral process has grown significantly over the past three years, which could mean (another) boost in the re-election of Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president, next year in the race for the Kremlin.
Although Putin has not officially confirmed his re-candidacy, a survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) found that confidence in the country’s election results rose from 46% in November 2020 to 61% in the same month of 2023. In other words, over three years, the total number of Russians who trust the results of the electoral process has increased by 15 percentage points.
On the other hand, the proportion of people who do not trust the election results has decreased from 50% to 33% during the same period.
“Confidence in elections in Russia is steadily growing. In less than three years, the level of public confidence in the election results has increased 1.3 times,” notes the opinion poll published by TASS.
However, Putin’s opponents warn of the ‘integrity’ issue. “We clearly see that people are happy with the way the election is going. This does not mean that they believe in their integrity or that they are happy with the way they are going”, points out Alexei Minialo, a Russian dissident who spoke to Newsweek.
The probe could be a ploy by the Russian government to put pressure on the presidential elections, scheduled for March next year, on the agenda.