More than half of Russians — 52 percent — believe that the “hardest times” for the country are yet to come, a poll by state-run pollster VTsIOM revealed on Tuesday.
It is the highest percentage of people that are pessimistic about Russia's future since 2009, when 30 percent claimed the hardest times were still to be lived through, according to the pollster.
Only 19 percent of respondents said that the country has already survived its toughest times, while 22 percent claimed it was doing so right now.
Thirteen percent told VTsIOM that state of affairs in Russia was “excellent” or “good” right now, while 62 percent said it was “normal” and 22 percent believed it was “bad” or “awful,” the poll showed.
The survey was conducted on Dec. 26-27 of 2015 among 1,600 respondents in 46 Russian regions. The margin of error did not exceed 3.5 percent.
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