Nearly 60% of Russians Think Independence Is Good For Country - Poll
MOSCOW. June 9 (Interfax) - The number of Russians who think that Russia's sovereignty has brought positive results has grown over the recent years, a source at the Levada Center told Interfax. The Center held the poll ahead of Russia Day.
The percentage of respondents, who believe that independence is good for the country, has doubled since 2000, from 28% to 59%, while the number of critics reduced from 57% to 29%.
The proportion differs depending on the age, education, place of residence and income of the respondents.
Some Russians still do not know which holiday is marked on June 12 but their number is declining year to year.
Forty-one percent know the correct name of the holiday, Russia Day, as compared with 21-23% in 2006-2007.
Forty percent call the holiday Russia's Independence Day as against 47-53% in the previous years.
Six percent of the respondents said that the holiday observed the adoption of the Russian independence declaration, 4% said it was an anniversary of Russia's first presidential election, 2% suggested other variants
and 3% said it was not a holiday at all.
Eleven percent of the respondents found it difficult to say why Russia had a holiday on June 12.
Russian first president Boris Yeltsin made June 12 a state holiday with an ordinance issued in 1994. Initially, it was the day of the adoption of the declaration of Russian state sovereignty. The document was signed four years earlier (on June 12, 1990) at the first congress of people's deputies of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The holiday was named Russia Day in 2002.
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