Russian support for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin remains strong despite confidence in the country's economy tumbling, a poll on Thursday showed.

The results of the survey from pollster VTsIOM suggests Russians are registering the impact of the economic crisis, which has seen the country's stockmarket sink by two thirds since May, but are not yet blaming their political leaders.

Mr Putin remains the country's most popular political figure with 78 per cent public support, down three per cent for the September to November period, the poll showed.

However, support for his handpicked successor, President Dmitry Medvedev, fell five per cent to 74 per cent, according to the survey.

"The poll illustrates the fact that Russians tend to trust more in personalities than institutions, which is one reason why support for Mr Medvedev and Mr Putin is high," Valery Fedorov, the director of VTsIOM, told a news conference.

"All the main indicators of the social well-being index are down, except the political index."

Confidence in the Russian economy dropped 19 per cent to 46 per cent for the two month period, according to the poll, while 49 per cent of people surveyed expected their lives to improve in the next year, down from 62 per cent.

The poll showed 52 per cent of respondents thought the country was going in the right direction, down from 65 per cent two months earlier.

The pollster questioned 1,600 people at 43 sites across Russia between November 22 and 23 for the survey, which has a 3.4 per cent margin of error.