Ever Fewer Russians Making Long-Term Plans, Levada Center Reports

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 8 – Russians have not only lost hope in the future but have stopped making plans for it, at least in the longer term.  A new Levada Center poll finds the percentage who are making plans five and six years our has dropped from 17 percent to 11 percent since May 2016 and the share of those planning for a year ahead fallen from 37 percent to 35 percent.

            Still worse, the center found, the share of Russians who haven’t made plans even for the next few months has risen by almost ten percent, from 37 percent to 46 percent, according to Dozhd TV which said it had obtained a pre-publication copy of the Levada report  (tvrain.ru/news/levada_tsentr_v_rossii_sokratilos_chislo_ljudej_planirujuschih-474667/).

            The Levada Center study reported that the decline has continued throughout the period and that all the figures about planning for the future were higher six months ago, an indication that this secular decline likely is continuing in response to the deteriorating economic and social situation many Russians find themselves in.

            Surveys support that conclusion, the Levada Center sociologists say. Those not making plans for the future now are overwhelmingly part of the segment of the population which assesses its material situation as “below average.” Those with higher assessments of their position on the social latter are more inclined to make longer-term plans.

            The sociologists also noted that the share of Russians who believe that their country is headed in the wrong direction has grown over the last year. In October 2017, 27 percent of Russians said they believed that; last month, the figure was 40 percent.  And the share of those ready to take part in protests has grown by “more than 10 percent” over the same period.