Let me answer everyone at once who’s asking what I think about the latest Levada poll: Blogger Alexei Navalny is becoming increasingly well known among Russians, but his electoral rating is falling, according to a Levada Center poll cited by Interfax. Whereas in April 2011 Navalny was practically unknown to his fellow citizens—94% of those surveyed told pollsters so—by the end of March this year, the number of people who knew nothing about the blogger had dropped to 64%. Among those familiar with the opposition figure, the share willing to vote for him in a Russian presidential election, should he decide to run, has fallen from 32% in 2011 to 14% in March of this year. Most respondents now, just as two years ago (66%), would not vote for him, while 21% have not yet decided (11% in 2011). http://www.gazeta.ru/politics/news/2013/04/04/n_2833537.shtml So, supposedly: what a disaster—your rating has fallen. Are you worried? Terrified? I’m perfectly fine with the poll results; they seem quite reasonable to me. All four main national TV channels are constantly running stories about how “blogger Navalny” stole millions, became a lawyer illegally, and is also a slanderer. And an extremist, too. Then comes the question: w*ould you vote for him, huh? * What’s more surprising is where that 14% even came from. Let’s spend a few days on TV talking about the real estate Putin’s thieves are buying abroad. Then we’ll see what’s left of their ratings after three days. So everything’s fine. I’m definitely doing better than the “All-Russian” “People’s” “Front” (the pro-Kremlin Popular Front movement). Despite the titanic effort poured into promoting this gang of prostitutes and bureaucratic crooks dressed up as collective farmers, fooling the public isn’t really working:
http://www.levada.ru/27-03-2013/rossiyane-ob-obshcherossiiskom-narodnom-fronte As you can see, there’s no particular need even for any “debunking campaign,” the one I mentioned earlier.
Everything is already perfectly clear. By the way, speaking of prostitutes (as promised in the headline): According to the latest poll by the same Levada Center, devoted to the well-known conflict between United Russia and the newspaper "MK" (Moskovsky Komsomolets), 4% of Russian citizens believe that United Russia members are called “prostitutes” because of the specifics of their sex lives.