Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 25 – According to
a Levada Center poll conducted last month, only 49 percent of Russians think
that their nation “constantly needs ‘a strong hand,’ down from 58 percent in
November 2018, but well above earlier figures, including the 31 percent who
gave that answer in March 2014 (levada.ru/2020/02/25/gosudarstvennyj-paternalizm/).
The share of those who say that Russia
needs a strong hand fell from 46 percent in March 2014 to 26 percent last
month, and the percentage indicating that there must never be a situation in
which one ruler concentrated all power in his hands rose from 15 percent six
years ago to 22 percent now.
These findings may be nothing more
than an indirect evaluation of Vladimir Putin, but they do suggest that
Russians are less inclined to support an authoritarian solution in every case
than they were, a positive development. At the same time, however, the
sociological service found that Russians continue to look to the state to take
care of them.
In the most recent poll, 60 percent
of Russians said that the state must be concerned about all its citizens and ensure
that they have a dignified way of life, lower than in January 2001 (71 percent)
but higher than in most of the intervening surveys.
And asked about how they view officials
who occupy the leading positions, Russian views remained similar to what they have
been under Putin in the past. Fifty-nine percent now say that those whom Russians
elect “quickly forget about our problems.” And 25 percent say that the leadership
is “a special group of people who live only for their own interests.”
What is perhaps striking given much
media commentary is that that figure is lower than it was two years ago and toughly
the same as it was earlier, a possible indication that Russians do not view their
rulers as significantly more isolated from their own interests and concerns
than they did a decade or more ago.
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