vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #582 / Social life / Reading article...

The majority of Russians believe the federal government’s inability to solve the country’s economic issues to be its biggest drawback, a recent opinion poll revealed.

According to a survey conducted by the Analytic Center of Yuri Levada in mid-August throughout Russia’s regions, 51 percent of the 1,600 respondents think the present government cannot cope with the rising prices and falling incomes facing the country’s residents.

42 percent of the polled people blame the government for Russians’ low social security, while almost a third – 30 percent – said top officials are incapable of providing a sufficient number of jobs for people, the Center’s site www.levada.ru said.

Overall, respondents’ major complaints against the government have stayed the same as compared to similar polls conducted by the Center for the past few years.

The government’s corruption issues were mentioned by 23 percent of the polled, the number having risen for the past few years, as opposed to only 13 percent referring to the problem in a similar poll in the year 2000.

Among other weaknesses in the country’s administration, respondents mentioned the rising crime rate, with 23 percent saying the government does not effectively fight crime.

21 percent of the interviewed people said the administration cannot cope with the economic crisis and fall in industrial production, while 19 percent said the government can but does not have a well thought-out program to do so, and 5 percent said the top officials act in the interests of foreign capital.

Interestingly, terrorism was named by only 13 percent of those surveyed as a problem which the government cannot efficiently combat to provide domestic tranquility.

Other drawbacks listed by the poll’s respondents are top officials’ low professional level, mentioned by 8 percent, and the inability to solve Chechen issues, with 6 percent saying the government runs a ‘strange’ war in Chechnya.

Finally, 6 percent of respondents said they do not have any complaints regarding the present government, as opposed to nine percent sharing the same view in last year’s poll.