MOSCOW, 17 August 2023. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey on the civil identity among Russians.

 Everlasting support 

Russia is better than any other country – six out of ten Russians agree with this statement (57%); over the five years this percentage has increased by 5 p.p. (52% in 2018). A third of respondents have opposing views (32%; - 8 p.p. compared to 2018); every tenth respondent could not answer the question (10%; +5 p.p. compared to 2018).

• A Russian who agrees that Russia is better than other countries is often a woman (59% vs. 53% of men), aged over 60 (74%), with good financial income (66%), living in rural area (66%), who prefers watching TV (78%).
• A Russian who disagrees that Russia is better than other countries is often a man (35% vs. 30% of women), under 25 (57%) or aged 35-44 (44%), with incomplete higher or complete higher education diplomas (41%), with poor financial situation (43%), living in Moscow or St Petersburg (45%), using actively the Internet (47%).

Today more than half of Russians think that patriots must always support Russia, even if what the country is doing is wrong (55%); every third respondent does not agree with that (36%). In 2018, the opinions were divided in the same manner: 54% supported the statement, 40% did not support it.

How to make the world better?

Half of Russians consider that the world would be better if people in other countries were similar to people living in Russia (47%); over the five years public opinions on this issue have not changed (52% in 2018); four out of ten respondents disagree with this idea (40%; 41% in 2018). The basic differences in answers are generational. The older the Russians, the more often they agree with this statement: 67% in the older cohort vs 21% of young persons under 25.

Russians largely perceive Russia’s influence on other countries in a positive way: 49% agree that the bigger the Russia’s influence on other countries, the better their people live; 33% of the respondents do not share this point of view. Five years ago, the percentages were similar: 49% of those who agreed vs 39% of those who disagreed. The share of those who failed to provide an answer has doubled over this time (7% in 2018; 16% in 2023).

Fathers and sons

Every third respondent in old cohort (60+) supports all four statements about Russia and patriotism (36% vs 21% among all the Russians and 9% among those aged 18-24); as to young respondents aged under 25, every third does not support either statement (34% vs 20% among all the Russians and 10% of those aged 60+).  The age of 45 is the border line where opinions differ: those under 45 often disagree with either statement (27-29% of those aged 25-44), or agree with one or two statements (47% of those aged 18-24; 48% of those aged 25-34; 43% of those aged 35-44). Respondents aged over 45 tend to agree with three statements (23%, each) or with all the four statements (20% among those aged 45-59).

Survey method: telephone interviews, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia.

The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of 13 August, 2023:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7973; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0159; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1019. Calculations are based on corporate standard.

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

 ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.

I’m going to read out several statements. Please tell me how much you agree or disagree with each of these statements.