Russians are demanding more from the government as discontent with state corruption grows, a report by independent pollster the Levada Center has revealed.
Some 31 percent of respondents said that citizens should demand more from the state, up from 25 percent in March 2016, the Kommersant newspaper reported Monday. Another 31 percent said that the state had given them "so little" that they "didn't owe it anything,"
The Levada Center also found growing discontent on government bribe-taking, with 65 percent of Russians describing the level of corruption as "absolutely intolerable." Another 32 percent said that corruption had infected Russia's government "from top to bottom"— up from 25 percent last year.
Levada Center chief Lev Gudkov said that Russians were once again focusing on domestic problems as the Ukrainian crisis died down.
“It’s anger. Its on the rise because people are having to save money against this background of the financial crisis and corruption scandals,” Gudkov told the Kommersant newspaper. “The mass mobilization which took place after the Crimean annexation is fading, along with the nation’s rally of support around the government. That wave of patriotism is disappearing, and tension within the
society will continue to grow,” Gudkov said.
