Interfax: Number of Russian citizens believing democracy grows in Russia rising – poll

MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax) – A total of 46% of Russian citizens believe that democracy rules in the country, against 38% in 2013, sociologists of the Levada Center told Interfax.

According to the survey, 32% of Russians, the same as in 2013, think democracy has not been established yet, while 13% of respondents (against 22% in 2013) said Russia has less and less democracy.

When asked what democracy is, 36% of Russian citizens said it is “public arrangement under which everyone is obliged to comply with laws regardless societal position,” and 31% of respondents said that under democracy “authorities took care of people’s needs.”

Thirty percent believe that under democracy citizens can express their opinion on state affairs freely, and 26% of respondents think that democracy is a public arrangement, under which citizens have the opportunity to control activities of the government, the poll showed.

Meanwhile, 21% of Russians suppose that “all governmental bodies are elected through free alternative elections” under democracy and 14% that “citizens are protected from state interference in their private lives and business,” the survey showed.

More Russian citizens think that a person’s well-being depends on him or her, not on how fair society is – currently 46% of respondents share this stance (against 38% in 2013) and 48% have the opposite point of view (against 58% in 2013), sociologists said.

The poll was held on March 21-24 and involved 1,603 respondents in 45 Russian regions.