The share of those who consider Putin to be an outstanding personality has halved since 2017 - Levada

The share of Russians who consider Vladimir Putin the most outstanding personality of all times and peoples has halved over the past four years - from 34% to 15%, according to the results of a May poll by the Levada Center (according to the decision of the Russian Ministry of Justice, it was included in the register of NGOs performing the agent).

During an open survey on May 20-26, 2021, Russians were asked to name the 10 most prominent people of all times and peoples. Most often, the respondents named Joseph Stalin (39% of respondents), Vladimir Lenin (30%), Alexander Pushkin (23%), Peter I (19%) and Vladimir Putin (15%).

The previous measurement was carried out by sociologists in 2017. In addition to halving the proportion of those who consider Putin the most outstanding person, fewer Russians began to name Alexander Pushkin (from 34% to 23%) and Peter I (from 29% to 19%) as such. The share of those who consider Stalin the most outstanding person in history has grown by 1%; he has held the lead in the ranking since 2012. Significantly more respondents began to call Andrei Sakharov outstanding - since 2017, their share has grown from 2% to 7%, Levada Center notes.

• Vladimir Putin first entered the top 5 most prominent personalities according to Russians in 2003, then overtaking Yuri Gagarin. Since then, Putin has gained more than 30% twice, in 2008 and 2017. Below 20% in this ranking, he fell for the first time.