Russians liked the speech of the prime-minister Vladimir Putin. However, good ideas remain empty words, according to more Russians.

MOSCOW, May 16, 2011. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing the assessment of Russians of the annual report of the prime-minister Vladimir Putin to the State Duma.

The report of Putin to the State Duma attracted the attention of one-quarter of Russians; 7% listened to his speech very attentively, 18% knew about it from the news. Those who put most attention to it are supporters of CPRF party (37%) and Fair Russia party (38%). As before, 56% did not pay attention to the speech of the prime-minister - they are mainly Russians younger than 35 (59%).

In general, the speech has made positive impression on the audience: 32% liked the speech; other 6% say everything that was said was right; the speech gave hope to 4%. Negative attitudes were rarer expressed: 11% give negative assessment, other 8% mention that nothing was done, 6% do not believe in what was said. 

As a year ago, Russians liked best the ideas of social support: increase of salaries for budget workers, increase of pensions (11%), increase in living standards (5%), allocating more money to health care (4%), and care about children (2%). Besides, Russians pointed out economic problems such as taking Russia out of crisis (5%), support for agriculture (4%), inflation (3%), gas prices decline (1%).  Russians supported what Putin said about the fight against corruption (4%), innovation and increased attention to army (2% for each). 

Respondents were hard to name the issues mentioned be the prime-minister that they did not like (61%); other one-quarter of respondents reported that there were no such topics. The rest of respondents point out the lack of actual actions (9%), ways to solve the issues (6%) and the lack of attention to the retired persons (3%). To compare, a year ago Russians` main claim was lack of attention to social sphere (4%).

Asked what they personally want to ask Putin about most of respondents, as before, pointed out social and economic issues:  indexation of pensions and payments (16%), inflation (6%), end of crisis (6%), social payments (5%), unemployment (3%), increased housing and community tariffs (4%), development of industry and agriculture (4%), anti-crisis measures (1%). Respondents are also worried about such issues as youth policies, education reforms (4% for each), affordable healthcare and housing (2% for each), law enforcement bodies` reforming (1%), flow of immigrants (1%), road construction and repair (1%). One of the actual problems is corruption (4%). One percent of respondents would like to know if Putin is planning to stand in presidential elections.

The speech of the prime-minister gave hope and inspiration to one-third of Russians (32% versus 40% a year ago) - they are basically Muscovites and St.Petersburgians (47%), 45-59-year-old Russians (36%) and United Russia party supporters (53%). Compared to the previous year, more Russians mark the ideas expressed by Putin were right, however they point out the absence of the real progress (from 42 to 52%). Those who think so are respondents younger than 35 (57-58%) and Fair Russia party adherents (70%). Those who do not agree with the statements of Putin (5%) and those who say these are not interested in these statements (4%) are in the minority.

The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on 30 April - 1 May, 2011. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!