International tensions and price increase are the most important problems threatening Russians today.

MOSCOW, July 8, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the results of the survey describing the problems Russians are concerned about.

Currently, Russians are more anxious about the international tensions; the indicator* showing the opinion of respondents on that made up 13 points in June. However, the trend has been negative since March this year (19 points). More than half of Russians (60%) say that they have already faced this problem, or they will face it in the near future.

For the time being, fewer Russians are concerned about the price rise and savings` devaluation than it was in the end of the winter (8 points in June vs. 19 points in February and March this year).

Simultaneously, the fear of natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc.) seems to be stronger than in the previous months: a 14-point increase (from -18 to -4) from May to June.

Other problems are less important for Russians today. Thus, the fear index measuring the attitude towards health problems has reached -5 (from 4 points in January 2015). Crime rate index decreased by 9 points from January to June this year.  The same is true for the upheaval and conflicts` indicator (from -1 to -9 points).

One-third of Russians (35%) are anxious about salary cut or possible switch to a low-paid job, etc.; the index has decreased from -5 points in January and February to -14 points in June this year. Russians are less worried about their employment: the job loss index is -27 points (-19 in January 2015); 20% say they can be laid off but 69% are not scared about that.

Russians are least anxious about family problems; the index makes up -42 points which is a 12-point decrease since January. More than three-quarters of respondents (81%) do not expect any conflicts with relatives to happen in their life.

*Fear Index shows how high Russians think the chances are for certain events to happen. The index is based on the question “How would you assess the chances of the following events to happen in your life; it is measured in points and can vary between -100 and 100.  The answer “I am completely confident that it has happened/will happen” corresponds to the coefficient 1;  the answer  "I think it will happen” – to the coefficient 0.5; the answer  “It is likely to happen” - to 0.1; the answer “It is unlikely to happen" – to (-0.1); the answer  “I think it will not happen” - to (-0.5); the answer  “I am completely confident that it will never happen” -  to (-1). The higher the value of Index is, the more chances are for the problem to happen, according to Russian assessments.

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted June 27-28, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.

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!