Kommersant: “National Euphoria Ebbs Away”
Viktor Khamrayev, Natalia Bespalova
Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin's ratings reach pre-war level
The Medvedev-Putin duo is losing the popularity acquired in September, Levada Centre pollsters found during their latest survey. They suggest that the euphoria following the "short victorious war" with Georgia has died down.
President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin's ratings have dropped to the level registered before the start of the August hostilities in South Ossetia. At that time, 73% of Russians trusted Mr Medvedev, and now 76%, whereas the President's rating was 83% in September. Similarly, Russians have somewhat lost trust in Mr Putin; in August his rating was 83%, in September 88%, and now 83% again. The number of those who disapprove of Dmitry Medvedev's policy has grown from 14% to 27%. Those in favour of the Government's activity have in turn decreased in number - from 66% to 59%. In addition, fewer Russians believe that the country is heading in the right direction - 54% compared to 61% in September.
You can hardly call this disappointment, Levada Centre press secretary Oleg Savelyev told Kommersant. According to him, after the surge of euphoria that followed the "short victorious war" with Georgia and the consecutive recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, public support rolled back to its usual level. Vladimir Putin's rating is still higher than Dmitry Medvedev's, mainly because the Prime Minister's rhetoric is full of traditional, and thus expected, "harsh public statements" on various matters, whereas the President, according to pollsters, is only trying to become a "cool guy".
In Oleg Savelyev's opinion, the financial crisis that broke out in September has not influenced Russians' attitude towards the ruling duo. The pollster argues that Russians in general "haven't had time to get frightened yet". First of all, this is because the crisis in the stock market "affected the interests of a too small social group", and ordinary people will not become alarmed until mass salary delays or dismissals begin. Second, according to Oleg Savelyev, the media, primarily federal TV channels, have convinced the majority of Russians that the crisis has struck foreign countries, rather than Russia.
Deputy director of the Centre for Political Technologies (CPT) Boris Makarenko also links the fall in the President and Prime Minister's ratings with the subsiding "effect of rallying round the flag": "provided an external threat, people consider it inappropriate to criticise the Government."
Chief of the expert agency Trend (Russia) Mikhail Vinogradov, in his turn, explains the decrease in ratings not only with the fact that the theme of war is no longer relevant, but also with the financial crunch.
