Twenty-nine percent of Russians are aware of the presidential address to the Federal Assembly. The issues that most of Russians are interested in are offshore issue and the development of the Far East.
MOSCOW, December 23, 2013. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning the following questions: whether Russians were interested in the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly; what ideas they perceived positively; how realistic the tasks set forth by the president are. The press-release contains the results of the social media monitoring conducted by the Social Networks Agency.
Results of nationwide poll
Almost one-third of Russians are interested in the presidential address to the Federal Assembly (29%). The share of those who watched the president’s performance is 9%; 20% found out about the basic points of the speech from the news. A relative majority of Russians (48%) did not follow the presidential address. One-fifth of respondents (22%) report that they generally have no interest in politics. Elderly respondents (aged 60 and over) are more interested (42%), than young Russians aged 18-24 (14%). Over the recent years the interest of Russians in the presidential address has decreased compared to the data of the polls conducted five or ten years ago.
Seven percent of Russians who watched the address live or found out about it from the news liked the ideas expressed by the president. Russians positively assess the following ideas of the president: fighting against offshores (7%), development of Siberia and the Far East (5%), reform of the army (5%), and housing program (4%). One-third of respondents (37%) who followed the address are hard to name the topics they liked.
Those who negatively assess the presidential address say that it is lacking results and details (7% and 3%), and that the social policies are stagnating (4%). Nine percent of respondents do not mention any negative points in the address; 68% were hard to mention any negative ideas.
Every third Russian (29%) who is aware of the key issues of the address is confident that all the tasks set forth by the president are real and will be fulfilled in the near future. Forty-six percent of Russians agree that the tasks set forth by the president are realistic, but doubt that the goals will be achieved. One-fifth of Russians say that the ideas of the president are too general and cannot be implemented.
Results of the social media monitoring
The most popular topic among social media users is the offshore business (24% of comments), and half of them like this topic (50%). Fourteen percent of respondents are interested in the topic devoted to the local authorities; most of them express positive opinion (73%). The share of users who are interested in the development of the eastern regions is 9%; 95% of their comments are positive. Social media users also discussed corruption (8%), migrants (7%), geopolitics (5%), courts, army, Internet technologies and IT (4%, per each). The topics negatively assessed by users were corruption (96%), geopolitics (65%), Internet technologies and IT (94%).
As to the implementation of the tasks, most of the social media users are skeptical: 68% believe that the tasks will not be fulfilled; 20% believe that there will be problems implementing the tasks. Only 12% of bloggers doubt that the goals will be achieved.
The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on December 14-15, 2013. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 communities in 42 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
The Social Media Monitoring was conducted by the Social Networks Agency on December 12-13, 2013. The open source engines (Blogs.Yandex.ru, Blogsearch.google.ru) and a special search tool were used during the survey. A total of 2 762 relevant publications were analyzed.
Results of nationwide poll
Did you follow the presidential address to the Federal Assembly, or not? (closed-ended question, one answer) | |||||||||
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
Yes, I listened to the president`s speech very attentively | 17 | 23 | 12 | 17 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 9 |
I did not listen to the president`s speech attentively; I found out the key points of the speech from the news, publications and newspapers | 27 | 35 | 32 | 28 | 26 | 22 | 18 | 20 | 20 |
No, I did not follow the president`s speech | 39 | 30 | 38 | 40 | 42 | 42 | 56 | 50 | 48 |
I am not interested in politics; it does not matter to me | 15 | 10 | 16 | 14 | 18 | 24 | 14 | 19 | 22 |
Hard to tell | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
If you followed the president`s speech, which ideas did you like/dislike? Please, name two or three ideas. (open-ended question, no more than three answers per each column) | |||
I liked | I did not like | ||
Foreign policy | 2 | Many words; no results | 7 |
Army reform, weapons update | 5 | General phrases; no details, | 3 |
I liked everything | 7 | There is no increase in pensions and salaries | 2 |
Fighting against offshore companies | 7 | No social policies` development | 4 |
Development of Siberia and Far Eastern territories | 5 | Economic decline | 1 |
Housing for Russian Families Program; housing for military personnel | 4 | Migration policies | 3 |
Control over the work of Government that must fulfill the tasks | 4 | Poor criticism of the government | 2 |
Inter-ethnic relations | 2 | No development of education | 1 |
Amendments to the Constitution | 1 | Amnesty for economic crimes | 1 |
None | 2 | None | 9 |
other | 2 | other | 1 |
Hard to tell | 37 | Hard to tell | 68 |
In your opinion, are the tasks set forth by the president realistic? Will the tasks be fulfilled? (closed-ended question, one answer, % of those who followed the presidential address or who have learnt about that from the news) | |||||
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
The tasks addressed by the president are realistic and very specific; they most likely will be fulfilled as soon as possible | 28 | 31 | 31 | 36 | 29 |
The tasks addressed by the president are realistic and very specific; they most likely will not be fulfilled | 49 | 47 | 40 | 42 | 46 |
The ideas of the president are too common; there are no details; it is impossible to fulfill them | 11 | 12 | 17 | 16 | 20 |
Hard to tell | 12 | 10 | 12 | 6 | 5 |
Results of the social media monitoring
Тop ten topics discussed in social media (% of total relevant publications) | |
Offshore companies | 24 |
Local authorities | 14 |
Eastern regions | 9 |
Corruption | 8 |
Migrants | 7 |
Geopolitics | 5 |
Judges | 4 |
Army | 4 |
Internet technologies, IT | 4 |
Civil initiatives, NGOs | 3 |
Other | 18 |
Top ten topics assessed positively and negatively by the social media users | |||
Share of positive comments (% of the total number of relevant comments) | Share of negative comments (%of the total number of relevant comments) | ||
Offshore companies | 50 | Corruption | 96 |
Local authorities | 73 | Geopolitics | 65 |
Eastern regions | 95 | Internet technologies, IT | 94 |
Social media users` assessment of the of the feasibility of the tasks set forth by the president (% of the total number of relevant comments) | |
The tasks will be fulfilled | 12 |
There might be problems implementing the tasks (from incorrect formulation to sabotage) | 20 |
The tasks will hardly be fulfilled | 68 |
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