Against the background of the recent developments, the Russian fear of becoming a victim of terrorism has increased; their confidence in the capacity of the authorities to protect them has decreased.

MOSCOW, December 1, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the results of the survey devoted to the Russian fears of being the victim of terrorist attacks and the level of trust in the authorities to protect the population.

After the Russian plane crash in Egypt and the terrorist attack in France Russian fears of terrorist attack have increased. The terrorist fear index has been up 8 points (from 41 p. in October to 50 p. in November this year). The indicator is higher among those who are aware of the Paris terrorist attacks (55 p.), women (57 p.), residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg (57 p.), and residents of the million cities (58 p.).

The current index value (50 p.) is close to the January 2014 reading (51 p.) when people still remembered the Volgograd terrorist attacks. The dynamics was registered amid the growing number of those who were afraid of being the victims of terrorist attacks (from 65% to 72%) and the decreasing share of those who tried not to think about this question (from 18% to 12%). The respondents’ confidence that nothing threatens their families is expressed by 15% of persons (16% in October).

At the same time, the confidence of Russians that the authorities are capable of protecting them against terrorist threats has plummeted. The index has fallen down from 60 p. in October to 35 p. in November. The share of those who believe that the Russian government can protect the population against terrorist attacks has decreased from 77% to 64%. On the contrary, the number of those who oppose them has increased from 18% to 29%. The index reflecting the answers of those who disprove of the presidential performance has considerably declined (-22 p.).

The Medialogia company analysis reveals that a total of 60 thousand references devoted to the terrorism topic have been found in the print media and on television over the recent five years. The peak was recorded in 2015 with more than 20 thousand references. Mass media covered the Paris terrorist attacks and Russia plane crash in Egypt as well as terrorist attacks in Tunis, Ankara and Mali. The operation in Syria was mentioned in the context of the Russian fight against the ISIL and terrorism. International negotiations to create anti-terrorist coalition were also covered by the media. 

*Index of fear to be victim of terrorism. The index is based on the question “Are you afraid that you or the members of your family may become victims of the terrorist attack?”. Coefficients 0.9 – 0.1 are assigned to answers. The index is measured in points and can vary between 10 and 90. The higher the value of index is, the more Russians are afraid of becoming the victim of terrorism.

**The index shows the respondents’ subjective assessment of the capabilities of authorities in protecting them against new terrorist threat. The indicator is calculated as a difference of positive and negative answers to the question “Ïn your opinion, will Russian authorities be capable of protecting the Russian population against new terrorist attacks?” The index is measured in points and can vary between -100 and 100. The higher the value of index is, the higher the level of confidence of respondents is.

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted November 21-22, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%. Russian media monitoring and analysis were carried out by the Medialogia Company using approximately 28 900 sources such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, information agencies and online media. Research period: January 2011 - November, 2015.

'The survey was conducted after the Volgograd terrorist attacks.

''The survey was conducted after the Russian plane crash in Egypt and the Paris terrorist attacks.

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