The latest May 6 action was less popular than the March of Millions that was held a year ago and ended with riot.

MOSCOW, May 29, 2013. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning the following questions: whether Russians heard about the action held on May 6; how they assess the opposition rallies and their participants; what they think about the future of the protest movement.

The latest opposition aciton was less popular that the March of Millions held a year ago: the share of those who heard about the May 6 rally is 44% (52% - a year ago). Those who are most informed are Muscovites and St.Petersburgians (53%).

Most of those who knew about the opposition action do not remember its slogans (72%): 68% are hard to remember them; 4% do not remember any of them. The remainder remember calls for change of power   (6%), slogans such “Down with Putin” (5%, a year ago – 18%) and “For Fair Elections” (4%). Respondents also mentioned the following slogans: “Freedom for Political Prisoners”, “Increase Salaries and Pensions” (3%, for each), “Freedom, Equality, Democracy” (2%), “Fair Power Without Corruption” (1%). 

According to Russians, the key reason behind the opposition actions is dissatisfaction with political power (21%), however the share of Russians who think so has decreased (a year ago – 29%). Russians believe that the following factors are also less actual: dissatisfaction with living standards (from 14 to 10%), results of elections (from 11 to 4%), Putin`s policies (from 6 to 2%). There is a n increase in the share of those who believe that participants of these actions fight for justice (from 4 to 10%); at the same time, more Russians think that participants want to draw attention to themselves (from 5 to 8%) or to stir up discord in the society (from 2 to 7%).

The portrait of a typical participant of the opposition rally is the same: Russians think that this should be someone who wants to express his/her opinion about the government policies (50%). The shares of those who believe that participants get money for taking part in the protest actions (29%) or have plenty of free time (23%) are also big. Eleven percent believe that participants are forced to take part in protest actions; 6% regard them as being mentally ill.  

The number of those supporting the opposition actions is still the same: 25% were loyal towards actions a year ago; today the share makes up 27%; the share of those who would personally take part in such actions is 7%. One-third of respondents are indifferent toward opposition actions (35%); the same part of Russians perceives protest actions negatively (32%).

A relative majority of Russians are confident that the protest rallies will be held in the future but they will be less popular (39%). Those who think so are mainly residents of Moscow and St.Petersburg (43%) and Russians aged 35-44 (44%). Nineteen percent of Russians tend to think that the peak of popularity of the rallies is over: those who think so are basically residents of million cities (25%). Twenty-three percent of Russians oppose them saying that the popularity of protest actions will be growing; those who think so are often residents of big cities (31%).

The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on May 18-19, 2013. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 130 sampling points in 42 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!