Russians put their faith in the ruble even as an oil-market selloff and sanctions over Ukraine pushed the currency to a record low, a poll showed.

The share of respondents keeping their savings in rubles rose to 47 percent, compared with 40 percent in the first quarter and 37 percent six years ago, the state-run All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion, or VTsIOM, said in an e-mailed report today. A stronger dollar was a concern for 57 percent, an increase from 42 percent in February. The survey was conducted Nov. 15-16, the polling company said.

“There isn’t a feeling that anxiety reached the levels of 2009 or 1998,” Valery Fedorov, head of VTsIOM, said yesterday by phone. “The main factor is whether people have jobs and whether they get salaries. So far, there haven’t been massive layoffs or nonpayment of salaries.”

The resolve helps explain why the central bank faced down market turmoil and shifted to a free-floating exchange rate ahead of schedule. While the ruble has lost the most this year after Ukraine’s hryvnia among currencies tracked by Bloomberg, unemployment remains near a record low and real disposable incomes advanced for three straight months.

The ruble has lost more than 28 percent against the dollar this year. Russia’s central bank spent about $30 billion in October to defend the currency before switching to a free float on Nov. 10.

The poll of 1,600 people in 45 Russian regions has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, according to VTsIOM.

“Of course they’re worried,” Fedorov said. Yet “people are in no hurry to dollarize because their income remained at the same level.”