Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 3 -- Moscow’s Finance
University has been monitoring the levels of happiness in the 78 Russian cities
which have more than 250,000 residents each for the past year. Since January,
the overall percentage of people in them who say they are happy has fallen from
81 percent to 73 percent (rg.ru/2019/05/02/reg-dfo/samye-schastlivye-liudi.html).
At least as important as the
precipitous decline over such a short period, the variations in the share of Russian
urbanites who say they are happy may be even more. The highest percentage of urban residents who
say they are happy are in Moscow and Vladivostok with almost 90 percent in
each.
They are followed by Tomsk, Lipetsk,
Orenburg, Cherpovets, Grozny and Chia, all of whom are above 90 percent. At the other end of the scale are Vladikavkaz
at the very bottom with 63 percent, Khabarovsk, Voronezh, Petrozavodsk, and
Yaroslavl at about 70 percent in each case.
In reporting these numbers, the Newsru
agency pointed out that the numbers do not track by distance from Moscow or
even economic well-being, an indication of regional variations in the way
Russians assess their situations, variations that may help explain why some are
more inclined to support the Kremlin and why others are more ready to back its
opponents or protest.
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