Most of Russians do not think that rallies and demonstrations are a good way to tackle even the most acute social problems.
MOSCOW, February 17, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning the attitudes of Russians towards protest actions as a means to tackle social problems.
More and more Russians are concerned about high inflation rate (28%). The biggest problems also involve low salaries (13%), high tariffs for utilities sector (12%), and unemployment (11%). Less Russians are worried about road condition (7%), health services (5%), corruption and bureaucracy (3%), low pensions (3%), unaffordable housing (3%), infrastructure development (3%) and other problems. The shares of those who mention poor migration policy, arbitrariness of officials, low level of education, poor work of public transport, traffic jams, environmental problems, garbage on the streets, dilapidated housing, and high loan interest rates are 1% (per each group).
Generally, half of respondets report serious social problems (50%). However, 26% see the ways to solve them. Twenty-four percent of Russians regard rallies as means to tackle the problems, including 16% of those who think that rallies are useful in certain cases; only 8% say that the most acute social problems in their neighborhood/city cannot be solved without rallies and demonstrations. Those who tend to protest are respondents who disapprove of the work of the president (47%), supporters of the CPRF (34%) and the LDPR (32%). At the same time, more than one-third of Russians (36%) do not mention any serious problems at all (50% of them have high income; 53% live in large cities).
The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on January 31 – February 1, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 132 communities in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.
What serious social problems exist in your neighborhood / city / rural area today? (open-ended question, any number of answers, % of those who think that the acute problems exist) | |
| Total respondents |
High inflation rate, price increase | 28 |
Low salaries, low living standards | 13 |
High tariffs for housing and utilities services | 12 |
Unemployment | 11 |
Road condition | 7 |
Health services | 5 |
Corruption and bureaucracy | 3 |
Unaffordable housing | 3 |
Development of infrastructure | 3 |
Low pension, pension reform | 3 |
Economy | 2 |
Poor situation in agricultural and industrial sectors; dependence on natural resources | 2 |
Social policy | 2 |
Military actions in Ukraine | 2 |
Rubble drop | 2 |
Foreign policy (relations with the EU and the USA, sanctions) | 2 |
Public transportation | 1 |
Migration policy | 1 |
Low level of education | 1 |
Garbage on the streets | 1 |
Ecology | 1 |
Traffic jams | 1 |
No control over the implementation of legislation, arbitrariness of officials | 1 |
Dilapidated housing | 1 |
High loan interest rates | 1 |
Other | 7 |
Don`t know | 20 |
In your opinion, are the problems in your neighborhood / city / rural area so acute that they cannot be solved without rallies and demonstrations? (closed-ended question one answer) | |||||||
| Total respondents | Moscow and St.Petersburg | Million cities | More than 500 ths | 100–500 ths | Less than 100 ths | Rural area |
No acute problems | 36 | 30 | 29 | 53 | 35 | 35 | 37 |
There are serious social problems but they can be solved without rallies | 26 | 35 | 30 | 16 | 24 | 28 | 23 |
There are serious social problems and rallies would help solve them | 16 | 18 | 20 | 11 | 20 | 15 | 14 |
The problems are so serious that they cannot be solved without protest actions | 8 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
Don`t know | 14 | 9 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 17 |
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