MOSCOW: Nearly half of Russians want Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to quit, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday, suggesting corruption allegations levelled against him by political opponents have taken a toll.
Opposition politician Alexei Navalny released a video last month accusing Medvedev of owning a sprawling portfolio of luxury homes and of amassing a fortune that outstripped his salary. It has been watched more than 20 million times on YouTube and helped spark recent protests across Russia.
Medvedev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated “nonsense,” suggesting they were designed to stir up trouble ahead of a presidential election next year which Putin is expected to contest.
On Wednesday, the Levada Center, a pollster which casts itself as independent, released the results of a survey showing that 52 percent of Russians did not trust Medvedev, up from 42 percent in March 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea.
The same survey showed that 45 percent of Russians favored him quitting and that 30 percent said they had a negative attitude toward him.
Natalia Timakova, Medvedev’s spokeswoman, told Reuters: “The prime minister does not attach special value to polls, especially when it comes to those that have been conducted by the Levada Center to political order.”
The survey was conducted across Russia and involved 1,600 people.
The Levada Center was designated a “foreign agent” in 2016, a term applied to Russian non-governmental groups that receive foreign funding.
Lev Gudkov, the head of the pollster, told online TV channel Fontanka Office he wanted an apology from Medvedev’s office.
“They’d better apologize to us for their false statement that this is a political put-up job,” he said.
Karina Pipiya, a Levada spokeswoman, told Reuters the pollster stood by its findings.
“The survey is not an ‘order’. There is no scoop here in that the peaks (of support for the authorities) that were observed after Crimea’s (annexation) are fading and the numbers are returning to normal.”
Nearly half of Russians want PM Medvedev to quit, says poll
Nearly half of Russians want PM Medvedev to quit, says poll
Venezuela’s acting president calls for oil industry reforms to attract more foreign investment
- In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez used her first state of the union address on Thursday to promote oil industry reforms that would attract foreign investment, an objective aggressively pushed by the Trump administration since it toppled the country’s longtime leader less than two weeks ago.
Rodríguez, who has been under pressure from the US to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation, said sales of Venezuelan oil would go to bolster crisis-stricken health services, economic development and other infrastructure projects.
While she sharply criticized the Trump administration and said there was a “stain on our relations,” the former vice president also outlined a distinct vision for the future between the two historic adversaries, straying from her predecessors, who have long railed against American intervention in Venezuela.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, said Rodriguez, who must now navigate competing pressures from the Trump administration and a government loyal to former President Nicolás Maduro.
The speech, which was broadcast on a delay in Venezuela, came one day after Rodríguez said her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster.
Trump on Thursday met at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. But in endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined Machado.
In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects.
Hospitals and other health care facilities across the country have long suffered. Patients are asked to provide practically all supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws. Economic turmoil, among other factors, has pushed millions of Venezuelans to migrate from the South American nation in recent years.
In moving forward, the acting president must walk a tightrope, balancing pressures from both Washington and top Venezuelan officials who hold sway over Venezuela’s security forces and strongly oppose the US Her recent public speeches reflect those tensions — vacillating from conciliatory calls for cooperation with the US, to defiant rants echoing the anti-imperialist rhetoric of her toppled predecessor.
American authorities have long railed against a government they describe as a “dictatorship,” while Venezuela’s government has built a powerful populist ethos sharply opposed to US meddling in its affairs.
For the foreseeable future, Rodríguez’s government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections. That’s because when Venezuela’s high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.
Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, Trump threatened Rodríguez earlier this month with a “situation probably worse than Maduro.”
Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges.
Before Rodríguez’s speech on Thursday, a group of government supporters was allowed into the presidential palace, where they chanted for Maduro, who the government insists remains the country’s president. “Maduro, resist, the people are rising,” they shouted.
