The number of Russians supporting the idea to provide Ukrainian refugees with everything they need including favorable living conditions is smaller than it was two months ago.

MOSCOW, September 29, 2014. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the information concerning the following questions: how many Russians notice the presence of Ukrainian refugees in their place of residence; whether Russia provides enough help to Ukrainian refugees; whether Russians support the idea to simplify the Russian citizenship requirements for Ukrainian refugees.

Two-thirds of Russians report that there are Ukrainian refugees in their place of residence (67%); 29% of them say that their number is big; 38% say that their number is not so big. Those who noticed Ukrainian refuges are basically residents of large cities (52%). One-fifth of respondents (18%) believe that there are no refugees in their towns/cities (rural area residents – 43%; residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg – 2%).

Most of respondents (67%) are confident that Russia provides Ukrainian refugees with all necessary help. Every fifth Russian (24%) believe that Russia is too active; most of those who think so are respondents with low level of income (30%) and those who have many refugees in their places of residence (28%) rather than those who have high income (14%) and  do not mark any flow of refugees (18%). Only 4% tend to believe that Russia does not make enough efforts to support the refugees coming from Ukraine.

Over several months the opinions of Russians regarding the policy that Russia should follow towards Ukrainian refugees have not changed. The share of Russians who believe that Ukrainians must be provided with favorable living conditions and anything they need has substantially decreased (from 50% in July to 40% in September this year).  Forty-five percent of Russians would send Ukrainians back home as soon as conditions become favorable (39% in July). Seven percent of Russians say that Russia should stop hosting refugees and send back those who have come.

Fifty-three percent of Russian residents agree that the procedure of obtaining Russian citizenship for Ukrainian refugees should be simplified (66% of them do not mark the presence of refugees in their communities; 41% report a big number of refugees).  Thirty-six percent of Russians oppose the idea; they are mostly those who mark a big flow of refugees in their region (48%).

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted on September 20-21, 2014. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 communities in 42 regions of Russia. Data are weighted by gender, age, education, working status and type of settlement.  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!