Economic problems, declining economic growth and an increase of the national debt were named as Russia’s biggest internal threats by 44 percent of Russians surveyed by the independent Levada Center pollster, the Interfax news agency reported Monday.
Political issues, such as the “irresponsibility of the authorities” and the “weakening of Russia’s unity” were described as alarming by mere 16 and 9 percent of respondents, respectively.
Eighty-two percent of Russians agree that the country is suffering a long-term economic crisis.
Forty-one percent of respondents spend about half of their incomes on food, the poll revealed. Grocery shopping deprives 7 percent of Russians of almost their entire monthly salary, and only 26 percent said they spend less than a half of their total family incomes on food.
According to 36 percent of people surveyed, the situation with payment of salaries, pensions and stipends is becoming worse, though 47 percent said they did not notice any changes, the poll showed.
The survey was carried out on April 22-25 among 1,600 people in 48 Russian regions. The margin of error did not exceed 3.4 percent.
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