Postscript

“We Russians have gotten used to connecting everything to our leaders. Our leader is now Putin. And again there is this illusion that he can do anything. It would be very bad, if the president himself shared this illusion.” 

– Alexander Yakovlev, chairman of the International Fund for Democracy (Argumenty i Fakty) 

“Every citizen may exercise his constitutional and legal right to
halt the country’s slide into authoritarianism and not take
part in the voting.”

– Grigory Yavlinsky, 

leader of the Yabloka party (Interfax)

“You know, when a leader whom everyone trusts goes into battle, he should not be left alone in that battle. We should stand by him.” 

– Sergei Mironov, speaker of the Federation Council, about his decision to compete with Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections (Itogi) 

Support for presidential candidates
during the week of January 23, 2004:

Vladimir Putin:  79%

Sergei Glaziev:  4%

Nikolai Kharitonov:  2%

Irina Khakamada:  1%

Sergei Mironov:  1%

Against all: 4%

Don’t know: 6%

67% of those polled said they will vote or are likely to vote in the presidential elections. 18% said they would not likely vote. 14% did not know if they would vote.

Source: VTsIOM-A.