Russians regard the Krymsk flooding as a natural disaster rather than a manmade one, however they think that the number of victims could have been lessened if people had been warned in time.

MOSCOW, July 19, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data describing the opinion of Russians on the causes of the Kuban flood, who is responsible and whether people are ready to help the victims of the flood.

The flood in Krasnodar region had a wide public response: 95% of Russians, to one degree or another, are informed about the tragedy including 62% of those who are well informed and 33% of those who are generally informed. Those who are best informed are Russians aged above 45 (66%), residents of million cities (69%) and middle cities (67%). Less informed are young Russians (44%). Only 5% of respondents have heard about the tragedy for the first time during the poll.

Almost every second respondent informed about the Kuban flood regard it as natural disaster (46%). Whereas every fifth conclude that the disaster was due to negligence and irresponsibility of authorities and employees of public bodies (22%). The share of those who believe that the disaster was caused by the discharge of water from a reservoir or a dam break does not exceed 5%. Those who think that the flood was stirred up by subversive actions (2%), by human interference with nature, by supernatural forces or poor geographical position of the flooded cities are in the minority (1%, for each).

The overwhelming majority of those who are well informed are confident that the number of victims could have been lessened (89%). They are only opposed by 11% of respondents. Almost every second see the reason of the death of people in inadequate actions of authorities and emergency bodies (32% believe that the early warning system was not timely; 13% point out negligence and irresponsibility of authorities; 5% say the authorities were lacking an emergency action plan; 4% blame emergence services for poor and ineffective work and 3% point out the delayed evacuation and assistance to victims. Every tenth respondent believe that the crucial role was played by the effect of surprise: it happened at night when people were sleeping (11%). Other 6% blame the victims themselves for their sluggishness and confusion. Those who think that the most important factor was the discharge of water form a reservoir (3%) are in the minority.

Those Russians who are informed about the situation in Kuban blame local (28%) or regional authorities or the governor Tkachev personally (21%). Rarer respondents blame the structure of power in general, or its federal level (8%, for each). In the minority are those Russians who blame the Ministry for Natural Disasters (6%) or hydrometeorological center (2%). There are also those who think that there is no one to blame as intense natural disasters cannot be forecast or predicted (23%).

Thirty-four percent of Russians are ready to help the victims of the flood. In particular, 14% are ready to provide them with food, clothes and medicine; 13% could transfer money into a special account. Those who can go to Kuban to provide assistance are in the minority. The most active respondents are Russians aged 25-44 (37-38%) and Muscovites and St.Petersburgians (45%). Fifty-eight percent of Russians do not plan to provide any assistance to Kuban inhabitants. To compare: in August 2010 the share of those who did not assist the victims of fire was much higher (87%).

The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted July 14-15, 2012. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.

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!