Sociologists find that Russians prefer a completely fabricated political party to many of Russia's real parties

Russian sociologists at the Levada Center have conducted a new national study finding that a fictional political party created by the center's own researchers enjoys greater popularity than several of the country's real smaller political parties. 

Pollsters added the non-existent “Youth Party” to their new study on voting preferences, finding that 0.3 percent of Russians say they'd support the group, which is higher support than several real and legally registered parties enjoy, including “Civic Power,” the Greens, “Civic Platform,” “Rodina,” the “Pensioners' Party for Justice,” and “Patriots of Russia.” Russia is holding parliamentary elections on September 18.

Levada's survey found that the political parties with the highest support are United Russia (57 percent), the Communist Party (15 percent), LDPR (15 percent), A Just Russia (5 percent), and the liberal democratic groups Parnas (2 percent) and Yabloko (1 percent). 

Just 46 percent of those surveyed by Levada said they plan to vote next month, and only 20 percent of that group says it will definitely head to the polls.