RTThu, 05 May 2016 20:21 UTC
© Vladimir Astapkovich / Sputnik
Over 80 percent of Russians approve of the work of their president, and the number of Vladimir Putin supporters is high even among members of opposition parties, according to the latest public opinion research.
The government-owned agency VTSIOM reported on Thursday that the share of Russians who said they are happy with Vladimir Putin's performance as president is 82 percent. Even more Russians - 84 percent - said they are ready to vote for Putin at the presidential elections.
According to the same research, 76 percent of members of Russia's Communist Party said they are satisfied with Putin as the leader of their country and 79 percent of Communists claimed they would give Putin their support at presidential polls.Members of the Liberal Democratic party hold similar views, with 69 percent claiming general approval of Putin's current policies and 76 percent promising to vote for the incumbent in the next presidential polls.
The Foundation for Development of Civil Society - the NGO that ordered the poll - wrote in comments on the results that the "pro-Putin majority" in Russia currently has significant influence on various public activities and the potential for expansion.
"We can state today that our forecasts prove to be true, the pro-Putin majority is very stable, the president's rating is still very high and there are many of his supporters in all parliamentary parties as well as in many of those that have not made it to the lower house [the State Duma]," the head of the foundation, Konstantin Kostin, said in comments with Izvestia daily.
He added that the results of the poll demonstrate that the next convocation of the State Duma, which will be elected in September, would be largely pro-Putin."We witness extremely high demand from society for a strong leader who is capable of consolidating the nation in times when its statehood is at the establishing stage. This has happened in the history of many democracies," Kostin said.Vladimir Putin's electoral and approval ratings have hit record highs during the current presidential term. In early March this year VTSIOM reported that the share of Russians who express willingness to vote for Putin in the nearest presidential polls was 74 percent - the largest in four years.
In late October 2015, Putin's approval rating hit a historic high of 89.9 percent, beating the previous high set in June 2015, when the average monthly rating was 89.1 percent.In late June 2015, independent Russian pollster the Levada Center reported that according to its data, the share of Russians who are happy with Putin's work as president had reached 89 percent. Sixty-four percent think the current policies of the Russian authorities are correct - also the highest on record. The proportion of Russians who expressed dissatisfaction with Putin's work was 10 percent.
Reader Comments
Maybe nationalizing isn't the way to go. Maybe he doesn't have the power to do so. Maybe 'the Rothschilds' don't control Russia's Central Bank. Maybe the plan is to 'take control of' financial institutions - national and supranational - from within. Maybe it's better to wait until the West collapses into its own footprint before re-instituting something anew. Maybe these things can't happen overnight because the world just doesn't work that way.
How does the "step by step" theory fit in with Putin's holocaust-denial laws? How does forging a closer relationship with Israel, step-by-step, fit in with Putin's supposed anti-zionist strategy? How did the Iranian sanctions and allowing Libya's destruction fit in with your step-by-step narrative? How does forcing Syria into a negotiating process with its invaders, whilst simultaneously facilitating Kurdish federalism, fit in with the step-by-step story?
All these steps are pointing to a completely differently conclusion. Meanwhile Putin is praised on high by the Zionists in Russia and Israel.
I suspect you'll never let go of your Putin-hope. You cannot say no-one tried to warn you. Good luck in all your future endeavours.
Right, but is it a fact that the Central Bank of Russia is controlled by the Rothschild family? And if it is, does that translate into complete control of Russia and thus Putin is their agent? Are these facts?
"The "step by step" theory you're promoting is pure speculation."
As as your arguments.
"You need to act on facts and not rely on second guessing and hope."
Or despair, as the case may be.
"Putin had the power and popularity to kick out the Rothchilds."
Where are the Rothschilds in Russia? Maybe you can find them for us? What do they have a controlling interest in? For you, it's a fact, so it should be easy to point to.
"The threat of an economic crisis is actually an apology for Zionist control, seeing as it is based on fear of consequences. Nevermind that those earlier crises were triggered to enhance Zionist control of Russia."
Not everything is so simple I'm afraid. Neither your heroes nor anti-heroes are so omnipotent. Besides agency, you must also consider the structural forces in play. This is why ' Conspiracy Theory Ultra' will always remain relegated to the fringe; it ascribes superpowers to faulty human beings.
"How does the "step by step" theory fit in with Putin's holocaust-denial laws? How does forging a closer relationship with Israel, step-by-step, fit in with Putin's supposed anti-zionist strategy? How did the Iranian sanctions and allowing Libya's destruction fit in with your step-by-step narrative? How does forcing Syria into a negotiating process with its invaders, whilst simultaneously facilitating Kurdish federalism, fit in with the step-by-step story?"
How does destroying the 'Zionist-proxy forces' in Syria fit in to your scheme of Putin being a 'Zionist'? You've got yourself in a ball of knots, which is understandable because it's complex, not simple.
"All these steps are pointing to a completely differently conclusion. Meanwhile Putin is praised on high by the Zionists in Russia and Israel."
Oh really? What praise exactly did he receive from Israel?
"I suspect you'll never let go of your Putin-hope. You cannot say no-one tried to warn you. Good luck in all your future endeavours."
YOUR disappointment with Putin is leading you to completely illogical conclusions. We're just reporting the facts.
"There is a law that states that the Central Bank is independent of the government. Theoretically, the Central Bank has the right to set its own monetary and money creation policy. However, there are two limitations. The first is the IMF policy. Since the Russian Federation signed an agreement with this organization, the Central Bank sees itself as the main instrument for the implementation of the agreement. Of course, it is largely determined by personalities - while the head of the Central Bank, Gerashchenko, was indeed a distinguished banker and statesman, the Central Bank's policy was relatively independent of external sources; with Ignatiev and Nabiullina the situation has changed and the latter leaders try not to argue with the IMF.
The second limitation is the National Banking Council, which includes several representatives from the President Office, government and Parliament. A longstanding Russian Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin, who is not only a personal friend of President Putin but is also close to the IMF Russian expert, played a key role on the Council until recently.
Today, the situation is gradually beginning to change. It is already clear that the old policy of the Central Bank (that reflects the vision of the IMF in its most orthodox form) does not produce the desired effect and there is a growing criticism in the country of the policy of the Central Bank and the government. However, so far, the leadership of the Central Bank is withstanding this public criticism and does not intend to change its policy. At the same time, the government keeps pressure on the Central Bank to achieve specific results for itself. In particular, the devaluation of the ruble in the last two months is largely due to the fact that the government has too optimistically promised economic growth, which is clearly not there. An attempt was made to stimulate it with the Central Bank agreeing to go against its core mandate, which requires ensuring stability of the national currency.
The Central Bank's investment policy is similarly pulled by the opposing forces of IMF rules and the country's economic needs. During Gerashchenko's tenure, the Central Bank was actively increasing domestic capital (from late 1998 until 2003, the money stock M2 increased approximately 10-fold relative to GDP, from 4% to 40%, and about 15 times in absolute terms). The post-Gerashchenko Central Bank has been pursuing a strict policy of keeping the ruble from becoming an independent investment vehicle (in compliance with the principles of the Bretton Woods system, in which the dollar should be the only investment source). It has become clear today that there won't be foreign investment in Russia at a significant scale and therefore it is necessary to stimulate the ruble investment process. However, the current leadership of the Central Bank refuses to take any steps in this direction. Thus there is a reason to believe that the management of the Central Bank will change in the medium term."
Interview with Russian economist Mikhail Khazin: On gold, the imminent collapse of Western neo-liberalism, and Eurasianism.
SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Russian economist Mikhail Khazin: On gold, the imminent collapse of Western neo-liberalism, and Eurasianism
Mikhail Khazin is a mathematician and economist in Russia (graduated from Moscow State University in 1984). After working in various government and banking positions, he was discharged from his..."Putin is the 'President', but that's a foreign word. Any 'president' (foreign word) has two functions. One function is guarantor of the constitution, which means a notary. What is this function? Decisions are made by a certain system, by certain powers, or clans, if you like. The president's job is to ensure that those decisions were made in accordance with protocol, i.e. that there was no violation of the constitution. Nominally speaking, it means ensuring that a law was voted for by a majority, issuing an order to obtain the signatures. He's just a guarantor of the procedural aspect. He doesn't have the right to exercise governance. You can't name a single case where the president said "do this" and someone did it. If you think about it, that never happened."
Questioner: " Why not? Everyone knows that he gives orders."
"When was that? Dozens of times he has ordered the Central Bank to lower the interest rates. The Central Bank couldn't give a hoot for his orders from the church tower on high. Moreover, they do so openly, in a misconstrued way. The President gave them the order at the State Council, after convening the governors. Two weeks later the Central Bank was holding the forum "Russia Calling", where they publicly stated (I watched the interview with the CB's leadership): "As Russia has a developing economy and market, we have decided that the base rates are suitable for us". Translation: they don't give a hoot for the President. But a month later they say, "oh, now we're not happy with the interest rates, they're too low". The President says, "lower the interest rates". The CB says, "we're going to raise them". And they did. So who's in charge here? By they way, they raised rates absolutely legally. Because the Central Bank is sub-ordinated to Americans, not to the President of Russia. The Americans gave the command - the CB raised rates. Likewise they have given the command to impose sanctions and to weaken the Russian economy. That's it. They called in the advisory firm Oliver Wyman to consult with the CB, after which they later raised rates and sent the ruble crashing. That and all the other stuff is the actions of an enemy. They're acting just as an enemy should. How do I know they will keep raising to 50 or 60? Because they are the enemy. And I know what the enemy will do in order to strike us harder. ... Here the Central Bank will go all out to burn down the Russian economy. Whatever they can burn down, they will. Then, when people start rebelling, the CB leadership will just gather their things and emigrate. That's it - that's their plan."
SOTT EXCLUSIVE Central Bank Empire: The real enemy of the people?
Last month, Yevgeny Alexeyevich Fedorov, Deputy of the Russian State Duma and the coordinator of the National Liberation Movement for restoring sovereignty of Russia (http://eafedorov.ru/),...