Eight Survey Results Suggesting Russia is in Trouble that Can’t be Pleasing to the Kremlin

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 11 – The Meduza news agency has performed a useful service in compiling a list of eight new survey results that suggest that Russians are anything but pleased with the situation in their country and the performance of their government, attitudes that may not force the Kremlin to change course but that must be anything but pleasing to its denizens.

            The eight, listed by the news agency (meduza.io/paragraph/2019/02/11/o-chem-dumaet-bolshinstvo-rossiyan-v-nachale-2019-goda-maksimalno-kratkiy-pereskaz-sotsoprosov), are listed below with the original sources which provide additional details on each of them:

1.      More than half of all Russians now say that officials are lying to them about the situation in the country (interfax-russia.ru/main.asp?id=1004938).

2.      Ever more Russians are angry about other actions of the authorities (bd.fom.ru/pdf/d02nv2019.pdf).

3.      Increasing numbers are calling for the replacement of the Medvedev government (interfax.ru/russia/645949).

4.      Large numbers of Russians say they are having trouble getting and paying off loans (regnum.ru/news/2567820.html).

5.      Many Russians say they are finding it difficult to find jobs even after finishing university (forum-msk.org/material/news/15374602.html).

6.      More than half of Russians say they expect to have to continue to work even after they receive their pensions (ekb-on-air.ru/46146).

7.      Sixty-one percent say they are ashamed that Russia has always been poor (novayagazeta.ru/news/2019/01/17/148417-levada-tsentr-bolshe-poloviny-rossiyan-ustydilis-vechnoy-bednosti-v-strane).

8.      Russians fear war with other countries (meduza.io/news/2019/01/30/levada-tsentr-polovina-rossiyan-opasaetsya-voyny-s-drugimi-stranami).