Today more Russians give positive assessments to the work of the Russian government than three years ago (4 scores in average). Every second is confident that the government is capable of improving the situation in the country.
MOSCOW, June 29, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the results of the survey describing how Russians assess the work of the government; and what failures and achievements they have mentioned over the recent year.
More and more Russians assess the work of the Russian government positively: from 3.19 in 2012 to 3.67 scores in 2015. Every tenth Russian (11%) considers that the government` main achievement over the recent year is Crimea’s incorporation and solving problems of this region. Russians give positive assessments to the foreign policy (2%) and the way the government tackle problems related to Ukraine (5%).
Six percent of Russians cite effective measures to combat crisis and economic recovery. Simultaneously, they mention high inflation rates (6%), economic decline (5%), and falling rubble exchange rate (3%) among top failures of the Russian government.
The number of Russians who are confident that the Russian government has the capacity to improve the situation in the country has doubled; now every second Russian thinks so (47%). Those who share this stance are mainly respondents approving of the work of the president (55%), supporters of the United Russia (55%) and A Just Russia (57%) parties. The current Expectation Index * makes up 25 percentage points which is a historical maximum. Since 2013, the index has increased by 33 points (from -8 p.).
*Expectation Index is based on the question “In your opinion, is the current Russian government capable of achieving any positive changes in the country in the near future, or not?" and shows the levels of expectations from the government. The index is calculated as a difference between positive and negative answers, measured in points and can vary between -100 and 100. The higher the value of Index is, the more confidence Russians have in the Russian government.
The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted May 23-24, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.
Using the five-point scale assess, please, the performance of the Russian government. (closed-ended question, one answer, average) | |||||||
| Chernomyrdin`s Cabinet | Kirienko`s Cabinet | Primakov`s Cabinet | Medvedev`s Cabinet | Medvedev`s Cabinet | Medvedev`s Cabinet | Medvedev`s Cabinet |
| 1998 | 1998 | 1999 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Average | 2.16 | 2.42 | 3.22 | 3.19 | 3.21 | 3.49 | 3.67 |
Have you mentioned any achievements in the work of the government over the recent year? (open-ended question, any number of answers, %, shown are answers of at least 1% of respondents) | |
| Total respondents |
Crimea`s incorporation, tackling everyday tasks | 11 |
Crisis recovery, economic improvements | 6 |
Solving problems related to Ukraine | 5 |
Everything is good | 3 |
Foreign policy | 2 |
Army reform | 2 |
Hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics at the highest levels | 2 |
Reaction to Western sanctions and the USA | 2 |
Increase of pension, pension reform | 1 |
"Construction boom" | 1 |
Supporting industrial and agricultural sectors | 1 |
Successful organization of the celebrations devoted to the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War (Second World War) | 1 |
Development of sport | 1 |
Fighting corruption | 1 |
None | 30 |
Other | 4 |
Don`t know | 36 |
Have you mentioned any failures in the work of the government over the recent year? (open-ended question, any number of answers, %, shown are answers of at least 1% of respondents) | |
| Total respondents |
Inflation, price increase | 6 |
Economy in decline | 5 |
Rubble fall, increase of dollar and euro exchange rates | 3 |
Low living standard | 2 |
Decline in space industry | 2 |
Indetermination, lack of action in to tackle the Ukrainian problem | 2 |
High unemployment rates | 2 |
Agricultural and industrial breakdown | 2 |
Ineffective anti-corruption measures | 1 |
Low pensions, pension reform | 1 |
Reaction to western and the US sanctions | 1 |
Low quality of health services | 1 |
Too much attention and money spent on Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees | 1 |
Social policies | 1 |
Foreign policy | 1 |
Education reform | 1 |
Yes, I have mentioned some | 2 |
Nothing | 29 |
Other | 4 |
Don`t know | 43 |
In your opinion, is the current Russian government capable of achieving any positive changes in the country in the near future, or not? (closed-ended question, one answer, %) | ||||||||||||
| Stepashin`s Cabinet | Putin`s Cabinet | Putin`s Cabinet | Kasia- | Kasia- | Kasia- | Kasia- | Frad- | Putin`s Cabinet | Medve- | Medve- | Medve- |
| 1999 | 1999 | 2000 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2005 | 2010 | 2012 | 2013 | 2015 |
Definitely, yes | 7 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 12 |
Rather yes | 23 | 23 | 32 | 28 | 30 | 25 | 22 | 21 | 33 | 28 | 23 | 35 |
Maybe yes, maybe not | 34 | 28 | 30 | 31 | 34 | 31 | 34 | 37 | 30 | 39 | 36 | 28 |
Rather not | 27 | 23 | 17 | 23 | 21 | 26 | 25 | 25 | 18 | 19 | 26 | 14 |
Definitely, not | 11 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 8 |
Don`t know | -‘ | 9 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
Expecta- | -8 | -3 | 20 | 4 | 7 | -3 | -6 | -7 | 15 | 8 | -8 | 25 |
‘This answer option was not included in the survey
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!