Russia’s ultra Left Front and the opposition Communist Party (KPRF) have made it official – together they will back KPRF chief Gennady Zyuganov in the country’s upcoming presidential elections in which they hope to defeat Vladimir Putin.
A respected polling agency connected to the Russian government announced Friday that the popularity of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin had reversed its slow decline, rising above 50 percent for the first time in weeks. The news comes just over a month before presidential elections that Mr. Putin is widely expected to win. The polling agency, VTsIOM, put Mr. Putin’s rating at 52 percent as of Jan. 14. He remains Russia’s most popular politician, but his decision to seek the presidency again after four years as prime minister set off huge anti-Kremlin protests in December.
Russian president-in-waiting, Vladimir Putin, has been the source of much disdain since the Dec. 4 Parliamentary elections. His party, United Russia, was accused of fraud. No criminal charges have occurred since the accusation, however.Despite the supposed fraud, United Russia also lost over 50 seats in the Parliament to rival Communist and Liberal Democrats, which, ironically, are not liberal democrats but are a pro-nationalistic anti-immigrant party. Their voters, and others, have taken to the streets to demonstrate their disdain for Putin and his party, which he leads.
MOSCOW—Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin launched the website for his presidential campaign Thursday, only to see it flooded with comments from detractors demanding he not run.
The negative responses, which were followed by a freezing of the site that saw many of those critical comments vanish, illustrated the growing sense of discontent with Putin, whose centralized, top-down rule already has faced historic street protests in recent weeks.
