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Almost half of Russians want presidential term extended to 7 years - poll

MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - Some 48% of Russians approve of the idea of extending the presidential term from four to seven years after the 2004 presidential elections. Forty-one percent of the respondents surveyed said they are against doing so and 11% were undecided. This information was provided by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center based on the results of a poll sampling 1,600 Russians on November 22-25. About the same percentage of Russians (46%) believe that the president should have the right to run for president for three or four terms in a row. Forty-three percent of the respondents are against so many consecutive terms and 11% are undecided. Over half of the respondents surveyed (51%) were not able to say exactly who they would like to become president after Vladimir Putin's term expires. Under existing legislation, Putin cannot run for a third term. At the same time, 13% of the respondents said they would like Putin to name his successor. Ten percent of the respondents said the most suitable candidate is Gennady Zyuganov and 4% mentioned Sergei Shoigu. Other candidates mentioned included Mikhail Kasyanov (3%), Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and Grigory Yavlinsky (3% each), Aman Tuleyev (2%), Yury Luzhkov, Boris Nemtsov, Irina Khakamada, Yevgeny Primakov, Gennady Seleznyov, Valentina Matviyenko and Alexander Lukashenko (1% each).