The rating of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin raised to 52 percent over the past week, the state-run pollster VTsIOM said on Friday, Jan 20.
Communist Gennady Zyuganov gained 1 point to stand at 11 percent.
A Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and Yabloko party leader Grigory Yavlinsky have 4, 2 and 1 percent, respectively.
Support for Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) has remained unchanged – 9 percent.
Two independent candidates – Irkutsk Region Governor Dmitry Mezentsev and Svetlana Peunova, leader of an unregistered Volya party, have zero approval.
The survey involved 1,600 respondents in 46 Russian regions. The margin of error is below 3.4 percent, RIA Novosti reported.
In the United States, according to a recent poll, President Barack Obama's re-election prospects are essentially a 50-50 proposition. The poll found that most Americans say the President deserves to be voted out of office even though they have concerns about the Republican alternatives. Obama's overall job approval stands at a new low, with 44 percent approving and 54 percent disapproving. The President's standing among independents is worse: 38 percent approve while 59 percent disapprove. Among Democrats, the President holds steady with an approval rating of 78 percent while only 12 percent of Republicans approve of the job he's doing.
Meanwhile, a record 84 percent of Americans say they disapprove of the way the Congress is doing its job compared with just 13 percent who approve of how things are going.
