So this is what we've come to. A country of 145 million people. Elections—even if only formal ones—are constantly taking place across the country at different levels. And the number of independent polling organizations specializing in politics is zero.
The Levada Center has announced that it will not publish its pre-election polling data because it has been designated a “foreign agent” (a Russian legal label for organizations deemed to have foreign funding or influence):
That leaves only VTsIOM, which just makes up numbers without even conducting any surveys.
And FOM, which conducts very poor polls and then falsifies the results.
So that’s our wonderful political process—running entirely without real polling.
It’s a good thing we anticipated this turn of events and planned weekly nationwide polls. In my latest program, I announced that we are launching such a project. We have already shown that ACF’s polling, which we conduct using proper methodology, is far better than what gets published in newspapers on the eve of elections.
So we will be able to provide all of you with high-quality polling data.
I will publish them every week in my program, on Thursdays at 8:18 p.m.
If you want to help us and take part in this polling project, we would be very glad.
Come to our Moscow headquarters at 13 Vostochnaya Street, from 11:00 a.m. to 8:18 p.m.
We’ll talk with you, provide training, and thanks in part to you, people will be able to get proper polling on these “elections.”
We do not recognize them, but we are watching them closely.