---
title: "Russians Have Confidence in Medvedev"
description: "Despite worldwide skepticism of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, he remains popular at home -- though not quite as popular as his predecessor, Vladimir Putin."
date: "2009-08-03"
authors:
  - name: "Russell Heimlich"
    job_title: "Former web developer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/russell-heimlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2009/08/03/russians-have-confidence-in-medvedev/"
---

# Russians Have Confidence in Medvedev

In only three of 25 countries polled in the 2009 Pew Global Attitudes survey — excluding Russia — is the balance of opinion on Russian President Dmitri Medvedev mostly positive. But despite worldwide skepticism of Medvedev, he remains popular at home — though not quite as popular as his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, now prime minister. Strong majorities of Russians express confidence in both their president (76%) and prime minister (81%) to do the right thing in world affairs — but just slightly more express confidence in Putin than in Medvedev. Moreover, the high-profile role Putin appeared to play in international and domestic issues over the last year is reflected in Russian opinions over who is in charge. Almost six-in-ten Russians (58%) believe that Putin has more political power in the country than President Medvedev. Fewer than one-in-five (16%) believe that the president has the most political power, and just about a quarter (23%) volunteered that the two leaders share power together. By contrast, last year following the 2008 presidential election in Russia, roughly half of Russians (48%) expected Putin to have more power than Medvedev. But roughly equal percentages felt either that Medvedev (22%) would be more powerful or volunteered that both (24%) leaders would share their hold on the reins of power. [Read More](https://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/1289/global-attitudes-survey-2009-obama-lifts-america-image)