It’s business as usual in Russia: Vladimir Putin is facing his fourth term as president and looks likely to be determining the country’s fate for another six years. The 65-year-old Kremlin leader’s victory in the election on March 18 is considered certain, as he is ahead in all the polls. Public opinion pollsters predict that he will get more than 70 percent of the vote. This would be a personal record for the former KGB officer, who was first elected as president in 2000.
According to sociologist Lev Gudkov, head of the renowned public opinion research institute Levada Center, Putin’s approval ratings are currently at a high point. “The high approval of his policies, not taking into account the (current) patriotic-military wave, is based on the lack of alternatives and crucial illusions,” Gudkov told Deutsche Welle in December. One such illusion, he said, was the belief held by many Russians that Putin will guarantee the existing prosperity.
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