Levada Institute, best-known Russian pollster, to stop releasing results

Russia’s best-known independent polling shop said Tuesday it will stop publishing the results of its surveys, citing the legal risk after it was officially listed as a “foreign agent” by the government.

The Levada Institute has earned an international reputation for the quality of its public opinion surveys, but Director Lev Gudkov told the Russian newspaper Vedomosti that it will stop making its findings public — just two months before President Vladimir Putin seeks a fourth term in office in national elections March 18.

The pollster is based in Moscow, but received the foreign agent listing in 2016 because some of its funding has come from non-Russian sources.

Mr. Gudkov said the company would continue to survey voters, but would keep the findings private for fear of being shut down for trying to interfere in the upcoming vote.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (rfe/rl.org) reported Tuesday that both Levada and state-owned polling agencies both are predicting an easy win for Mr. Putin, but that Levada’s data suggest there will be a far lower turnout among Russian voters than the state pollsters are forecasting.

Mr. Putin and his allies have been pushing for a big turnout to challenge Western critics and underscore the legitimacy of the election.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told rfe/rl.org that it was “unfortunate” that Levada’s polls would not be made public, but that the foreign agent law must be respected.