Russian government gets 'C' grade in poll

Moscow, April 19 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russians quizzed in an opinion poll released Friday gave their government the unflattering equivalent of a "C" grade for overall performance.

The government, headed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, scored 3.2 out of five in the poll, where a five would equal an "A" grade in Western parlance.

In other findings in the poll carried out by state-run Public Opinion Foundation, 31 percent of respondents said the government, which began work in May 2012, was functioning worse than they had expected.

Just four percent said it was operating better than they had expected.

However, 71 percent said the current government was working no worse than the previous cabinet, headed by Vladimir Putin before his return as president last year.

Valery Fedorov, head of the pollster, said that around 20 percent of respondents considered the government's work over the past year "unsuccessful", while a similar number believed otherwise.

The most popular minister was Sergei Shoigu, the current defence minister and former emergencies minister.

The poll comes amid mounting media speculation that Putin is preparing to dismiss the government, after he was shown on a leaked video criticising senior officials.

The opinion poll was carried out among 1,600 people.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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