The protest activity of Russians is going down. The interest of Russians toward elections has decreased. Russians express indifference, outrage and anxiety towards elections.

MOSCOW, March 22, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning the following questions: what Russians heard about rallies after the presidential elections; their awareness about the protest actions; what emotions the opposition rallies evoke; whether they consider the calls to review the results of the voting reasonable; as well as what future the movement “For the fair elections’ will have.  

The rallies taken place after the presidential elections in support of Putin drew a wider response (60% heard of them), rather than the actions of opposition known for 30%.  At the same time, whereas the actions of Putin`s supporters attract more attention, the opposition actions do not. The number of those who know about the rallies but do not understand what they are intended for has also substantially decreased. Those who know most about the rallies are residents of Moscow and St.Petersburg (91%); those who know about the actions “For the fair elections” reside in other big cities (40%).

Those Russians who are well informed about the rallies are usually indifferent towards actions of opposition, however most of them express outrage (19%) and anxiety (18%) about that. Ten percent of respondents feel “hope”; the same share of Russians are disappointed. Other 9% approve of these actions; 3% report the actions make them feel more confident in the future. Those who are indifferent are absentees (42%); those who are outraged are supporters of V.Putin (28%); those who are anxious or disappointed are adherents of Mironov (27 and 16%, respectively). On the contrary, supporters of Zyuganov tend to express “hope” or “approval” (20%, equal to supporters of Prokhorov).

Most of respondents do not think that the results of presidential elections should be reviewed (49%); to compare: 28% of Russians thought so after the State Duma elections.  Those who think that any claims to revise the results are groundless are supporters of Putin (66%) and rural area residents (58%). The share of respondents who think that there is a need to review the results of elections is 38% of respondents, mostly supporters of Zhirinovsky (67%), G.Zyuganov (65%) and M.Prokhorov (62%), as well as residents of Moscow and St.Petersburg (64%). At the same time, the number of those who are ready to express personal protest is 7% - basically Prokhorov`s supporters (19%), metropolitan residents (11%) and residents of middle cities (12%).

The majority of Russians are confident that the protest movement will not be growing: 38% of respondents say that the activity will be ceased, 39% think that the rallies will take place in the future but they will not involve masses.  And only 9% believe that the popularity of rallies will grow.

Most of Russians who think that the claims of opposition to review the final results of elections are groundless consider that the high peak is left behind (49%). Those who think the claims are reasonable but are not ready to express personal protest believe that the actions “For the fair elections” will continue but will not engage masses (50%). And finally, those Russians who are ready to personally take part in the protests against the results of elections believe that the protest activity will grow (38%).

The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted March 17-18, 2011. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

*the survey was conducted December 17-19 and 11-12 took into account the rallies organized by the supporters of United Russia party.

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!