Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently poised to win a fourth term in the Kremlin if he runs in next year’s election, according to the results of a recent nationwide poll.
Mr. Putin hasn’t formally thrown his hat into the 2018 race, but the independent Levada Center’s polling published Friday suggests he’s a shoo-in if and when he kick-starts his re-election campaign.
Of 1,600 adults surveyed, 53 percent said they’d vote for Russia’s current head of state if the presidential election was held this weekend, according to pollsters.
Roughly 11 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t cast ballots, the Levada Center said. Among those who would vote, however, 66 percent said they’d pick Mr. Putin, The Moscow Times reported.
None of the other potential presidential hopefuls named by respondents polled past the single digits.
Mr. Putin, 65, served as prime minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 before serving two consecutive stints as president from 2000 to 2008. He resumed the role of prime minister from 2008 to 2012, when he was elected to his third and current term in the Kremlin.
International election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concluded that the 2012 race was “clearly skewed” in Mr. Putin’s favor. Tens of thousands of Russians subsequently protested in Moscow in the days following his re-election, spurring hundreds of arrests and paving the way for the passage in 2014 of strict anti-protest legislation.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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