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#1 - JRL 9077 - JRL Home
OLD VILLAGE WOMAN, QUINTESSENCE OF RUSSIAN POVERTY

MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti's Nikolai Makarov) - Women are in the worst plight of all poverty-stricken Russians, was a conclusion the Social Project Institute and ROMIR Monitoring Co. made after a big opinion probe. Institute bosses offered its returns to a RIA Novosti news conference this afternoon.

Roughly 15% of the 15,000 respondents said they belonged to low-income people. Women made 68% of these-women past their prime 39%, and middle-aged 45%. Pensioners accounted for an impressive 77% of the poor, and village and township residents made a half.

More than 70% of the people who considered themselves poor said food was the only thing they properly afforded, while new clothes made a bad problem. Twenty eight percent complained of undernourishment.

Low-income people are cheerful enough, despite all. 21.5 percent described their dominant mood as good, 44% as tolerable, while a mere 31.5% said they were always despondent. 14% look forward to a better life quite soon, while 45.6% expect things to stay as they are, and 25% apprehend a turn to the worse.

Paradoxically, 64.5% of low-income respondents are not in the slightest prejudiced against private enterprise. 21% dream of starting a business of their own, and 42% want to see their children settling in the entrepreneurial world.

The poor are eager to see strong statehood - 64% expect the state to gain in power, while 88% regard stronger central power and domination of the law as what matters more to Russia than anything else.

Strong rule, national accord and piety are sure to get this country out of its current plight, said a majority of low-income respondents.

Goodness, charity, industry and tolerance are principal human virtues, they said.

The opinion probe, with 15,200 respondents, based in 409 urban and rural settlements in 59 Russian regions, out of a total 89.