Nearly half of Russians want socially-oriented reforms

ChrisD(RJ) chrisd at russiajournal.com
Tue Dec 24 07:05:53 PST 2002


Nearly half of Russians want socially-oriented reforms - Poll

MOSCOW. Dec 24 (Interfax) - Almost half of Russians - 47% - believe that Russia should follow a path of reforms combined with measures of social protection for the population.

About one third of Russians - 29% - favor continuation of the current reformation policy, about 20% would prefer to return to socialism and 4% were unable to formulate their opinion on this issue.

Interfax obtained this information on Tuesday from the Agency of Regional Political Research, which conducted a nation-wide poll of 1,600 respondents last week.

The desire to return to socialism is widespread most of all among residents of the Volga (25%) and Far Eastern (25%) Federal Districts. About 40% of the respondents with an elementary or uncompleted secondary education, 36% from the low-income bracket, 38% of pensioners and 30% of the unemployed would not object to this return.

Socially-oriented reforms are supported by 54% of people with a university education, 48% of those with high incomes, 60% of managers and 53% of professionals.

The desire to return to the past is especially widespread among people older than 60, while a significant part (41%) of young people from 18 to 24 would like the current way of reforms to continue.

About 75% of the supporters of Russian communist leader Gennady Zyuganov would like to see a return to socialism in Russia, while the largest share of advocates of the current reform policy was recorded among Yabloko voters.



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