Russians think that there are political prisoners in Russia, but they do not know their names.
MOSCOW, April 9, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing who Russians consider political prisoners, as well as why they think Khodorkovsky was arrested – for economic or political reasons.
Russians believe that political prisoners are those who act against authorities (27%). Eight percent of respondents say the political prisoners are dissenters; 6% - “people out of authorities` favor”. The majority of respondents believe that political prisoners are those who serve sentence for particular crimes: for example, those who reveled state secrets (5%), who were found guilty of theft or corruption (3%), who violated law or state servants who exceeded their authority (2% for each), or terrorists (1%). Russians also mentioned those who betrayed their home country, those who were victims of the soviet system, politicians under arrest (2% for each). One percent of respondents mention particular persons such as Khodorkovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, and Timoshenko.
As a rule, Russians believe that we have political prisoners in Russia but they do not know their names (39%). The remainder names M.Khodorkovsky (10%). Russians also mention P.Lebedev and B.Berezovsky (1% per each). Twenty-three percent of Russians think that there are no political prisoners in Russia.
According to relative majority, M.Khodorkovsky is serving sentence for economic crimes (44%). Most of those who think so are CPRF (51%) and United Russia (48%) supporters. Only 19% are convinced that M.Khodorkovsky was arrested due to political reasons; most of those who think so are supporters of non-parliament parties (54%).
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted March 24-25, 2012. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
In your opinion, who are political prisoners? (open-ended question, not more than three answers) | |
Those who act against authorities | 27 |
Those who have their own political views, vision; dissenters | 8 |
Those who are out of authorities` favor | 6 |
Those who committed political crimes(who revealed government secrets) | 5 |
Corruptionists, thieves | 3 |
Enemy of the state | 2 |
Victims of USSR political system | 2 |
Those who broke the law | 2 |
Politicians under arrest | 2 |
State officials who exceeded their authority | 2 |
Terrorists | 1 |
Persons like Khodorkovsky, Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, Timoshenko | 1 |
None | 1 |
Other | 1 |
Hard to tell | 40 |
In your opinion, are there political prisoners in Russia today? If yes, could you name them? (open-ended question, any number of answers) | |
Lebedev | 1 |
Berezovsky | 1 |
Khodorkovsky | 10 |
There are political prisoners but I do not know their names | 39 |
There are no political prisoners in Russia | 23 |
Other | 0 |
Hard to tell | 26 |
Khodorkovsky`s case was ambiguously assessed in Russia and other countries. Some people say he committed economic crimes. Others say that he was pursued for political reasons. Which statement is closer to your point of view? (close-ended question, one answer) | |||||||
Total respondents | Fair Russia party | LDPR | CPRF | United Russia party | Non-parliament parties | I would not take part in the voting | |
Rather the 1st. He is serving a sentence for committing economic crimes | 44 | 44 | 47 | 51 | 48 | 23 | 31 |
Rather the 2d. He was pursued for political reasons | 19 | 27 | 18 | 23 | 13 | 54 | 23 |
I know nothing about Khodorkovsky`s case | 27 | 22 | 26 | 20 | 28 | 14 | 36 |
Hard to tell | 10 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 11 | 9 | 10 |
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!