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Most Russians aren't disappointed in President Putin - Poll

MOSCOW. March 21 (Interfax) - A majority of Russians (61%) say that President Vladimir Putin has had more successes than failures, the Public Opinion Foundation reported on Thursday with reference to a poll of 1,500 town and country residents on March 16.

13% think the opposite.

79% of Putin's supporters think that he has had more successes, while 4% think the opposite. Supporters of Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov say that the Russian president has been mostly a failure (36% to 34% who think differently).

29% of the polled said that the president has had the most obvious successes in social policy, 10% named foreign policy and 5% named domestic policy. 3% said that Putin has been especially successful in economics, and 3% named defense policy.

59% of the respondents said Putin has never given them a reason to be disappointed in him.

Yet 26% said that in some situations the president has been wrong. The most frequent example was the Kursk situation (7%). The events in Salt Lake City ranked second (4%). The respondents said they were disappointed that "the Olympic team was put at the mercy of America" and the reaction of the president was too restrained "as he did not stand up to protect the athletes."

3% of the polled blame Putin for the ongoing war in Chechnya.

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