MOSCOW, July 17, 2007 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents information concerning how well Russians are informed of the procedure and dates of the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The information was acquired within the framework of a survey carried out by VCIOM in May 2007 upon request of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.

74% of the respondents were more or less aware of the fact that the elections are to take place in December 2007. 30% knew it for sure and 44% have heard something about it. One fourth of the respondents (24%) did not know the date of the elections at the time of the survey.

The supporters of the „Unified Russia" and "Fair Russia" were best of all informed of the coming elections. Respondents supporting "Unified Russia" are more or less informed of the date of the elections. Their awareness is approximately at the same level as the awareness of those supporting "Fair Russia" (77-78%), but they count a noticeably lower percentage of people fully informed about this event (31% compared to 24% among those supporting "Fair Russia").

The vast majority of the Muscovites and Petersburgers are informed of the fact that the parliamentary elections are going to take place in December this year (87%), 38% know about it for sure. People living in medium and small towns and also villages possess the least information concerning the elections (70-72%).

The majority of the respondents managed to answer the question as to how often the elections to the State Duma take place correctly (63%). 36% of the respondents, however, failed to provide a correct answer to this question. 9% expressed the opinion that the elections are conducted every 3 years, 7% that they take place every five years, 1% gave another answer which was just as incorrect, 19% found it hard to provide an answer to this question.

When answering the question as to how often the elections to the State Duma take place, men managed to provide a correct answer more frequently than woman: 67% and 61% respectively. Among the people with higher education the level of awareness is 10-15% higher than among the respondents without higher education.

The overwhelming majority of respondents (88%) were able to answer correctly to the question: "From what age does a citizen of the Russian Federation have the right to participate in the elections". 10% provided an incorrect answer. 2% found it difficult to provide an answer at all.

It is interesting to note how well informed in regard to this issue the youth is: the share of those who provided the correct answer to this question reaches 92% in the age group of 18 to 25 years, whereas it does not exceed 86-88% in any other age group.

The All-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on May 17-27, 2007. 3000 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.