MOSCOW, Nov 5 (Reuters) - A majority of Russians back the arrest of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and praise President Vladimir Putin's "no interference" stance as a boost for the rule of law, according to an opinion poll released on Wednesday.
The Khodorkovsky affair -- which grabbed world headlines and raised questions over Putin's commitment to reforms -- left most Russians indifferent, said Yelena Bashkirova, head of the ROMIR polling centre that carried out the research.
"Among our respondents 25 percent -- and that is one in four -- have not even heard about Khodorkovsky's arrest," Bashkirova said as she presented the findings to analysts and reporters.
From those aware of the arrest of the oil giant YUKOS's former CEO, 34 percent said they were positive about the move and 20 percent rather positive. Only four percent were firmly against it. Twenty-nine percent did not have any opinion.
Security officers last month snatched Khodorkovsky from his plane and flew him to Moscow where a court ruled that Russia's richest man should stay behind bars pending trial on charges of tax evasion and massive fraud.
Prosecutors later froze a controlling stake in YUKOS owned by Khodorkovsky and his allies.
The case led to wild swings in the company's share price and Russia's stock market in general, forcing Putin to personally assure startled investors the Kremlin was not in the opening stages of a large-scale attack on big business.
ROMIR findings showed that Russians, with their aversion to "oligarchs" -- super-rich businessmen who built their empires from assets grabbed on the cheap during chaotic privatisations in the 1990s -- believed Khodorkovsky had only himself to blame.
A total of 52 percent of respondents echoed the official line that the businessman went to jail because he or his company had broken the law. Only eight percent shared the nearly unanimous view among political analysts that the attack on Khodorkovsky was orchestrated by the Kremlin.
The poll was conducted between October 30 and November 3 among 1,500 selected respondents across Russia.
Putin's truculent public refusal to step into the row and put pressure on the prosecutors also went down well with his potential voters. Twenty-seven percent saw it as strengthening the rule of law in the country.
Bashkirova said the figures showed Putin emerged as the biggest winner from a situation described by many analysts as the biggest political crisis of his presidency, boosting his image as a tough but just father of the nation.
She also said the effect was partially rubbing off on the United Russia bloc he had backed ahead of next month's election to the State Duma lower house of parliament.
"In people's minds Putin and the party are one," she said.
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