One in every four Russians supports proposals to ban the U.S. dollar from circulation and savings deposits inside the country, poll results released Wednesday show.
Another 39 percent of respondents wanted savings and transactions in the U.S. currency to remain legal, while 32 percent were undecided, according to a survey released by the state-run VTsIOM pollster on the heels of a bill proposed by a State Duma lawmaker last week to ban dollar deposits and transactions at Russian banks.
Among the 28 percent of respondents who favored banning the U.S. dollar from Russia, 39 percent were people with only an "elementary level of education," while more than half of the measure's opponents were "highly educated" respondents.
Explaining the bill, State Duma Deputy Mikhail Degtyaryov of the Liberal Democratic Party argued that the dollar was on the brink of collapse, and said the measure was needed to protect Russia from an economic disaster that would befall countries with a high dependency on the U.S. currency.
The poll, which surveyed 1,600 people from 130 cities and towns earlier this year, had a 3.4 percent margin of error.
