Fifty-three percent of Russians consider the impoverishment of citizens and rising prices to be the major threats facing the country, the Interfax news agency reported Friday, citing the results of a recent poll by the independent Levada Center pollster.
The other threats that Russia currently faces, according to respondents, include the economic crisis (49 percent) and rising unemployment (35 percent).
Russia's economy has been slumping under the pressure of Western sanctions and plunging global prices of oil. Prices were 12.9 percent higher last year compared to 2014 and the real wages of Russians shrank by 9.5 percent over the same period, according to the Rosstat state statistics service.
The recession pushed another 2.3 million Russians into poverty in the first nine months of 2015, according to Rosstat data.
The findings also revealed that 82 percent of Russians believe there is an economic crisis in Russia. Every fifth respondent said they believed the crisis will last for a long time.
Twelve percent of the poll respondents believe there is no financial crisis in Russia, Interfax reported.
The poll was carried out between December and January among 1,600 Russian residents in 48 regions.
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