From: "Nickolai Butkevich" <nbutkevich@ucsj.com>
Subject: Re Lozansky/ Polman/ JRL #77 [re: Levada Center, VTsIOM]
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006
The Polman/Lozansky debate from #77 was interesting, but Mr. Polman made an erroneous statements about the Levada Center and its reliability. He was correct to point out that VTsIOM (The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion) which Levada founded and turned into Russia's leading polling and sociological organization was purged by government officials a few years ago, causing Levada and much of his staff to leave, but he seems to have mixed VTsIOM up with the Levada Center, which Levada and some of his top people founded after being chased out of VTsIOM. In other words, if modern day VTsIOM were to publish a study showing Putin getting a 70% approval rating, there would be good reasons to suspect those results, but if polling by the Levada Center showed the same result, it's probably true. The Levada Center continues to maintain a good reputation for independence and is one of a shrinking number of reliable sources on what is really going on in Putin's Russia.
Nickolai Butkevich
Research and Advocacy Director
UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union
Phone: (202) 237-8262 x107
Fax: (202) 237-2236
www.fsumonitor.com -- Daily Updates on
Antisemitism, Extremism and Jewish Life in the FSU.