Russians critical of government's social policy actions - poll
Moscow, 9 December: Russians are mostly critical of the government because of the authorities' inability to tackle growing prices and shrinking incomes of the population (50 per cent), shows a poll conducted by the Levada Centre public opinion research agency in 44 Russian regions on 19-22 November.
Some 32 per cent of respondents said they were unhappy that the government could not provide jobs for people and that the government was not ensuring the social protection of the population.
Some 20 per cent of Russians said that the government was mainly acting in its own interests. Another 20 per cent of Russians thought that the government was not efficient enough in fighting against crime.
Respondents did not agree on the government's economic programme. Some 36 per cent of Russians thought that the country had a well thought-out economic policy. Some 34 per cent of respondents said that such a policy did not exist.
The poll also showed that the population was not expecting much from the government. Only 6 per cent of the population said they were fully confident that the authorities would manage to change the situation in the country for the better soon. Some 26 per cent said they had some confidence in the authorities' ability to do so. A total of 32 per cent of respondents said that this was unlikely or not possible at all.
A total of 34 per cent of respondents said that they could not forecast the situation accurately and that therefore a favourable and a negative scenarios were equally likely.
The public opinion research experts noted that the popularity rating of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin remained high, with 78 per cent of the population supporting his work in this position (in November). The government's popularity rating was somewhat lower, at 50 per cent.
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