Interfax: Russians less confident of authorities’ ability to avert terror attacks – VTsIOM

MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) – The number of Russians fearing they may fall victim to terrorist attacks has grown after the Volgograd bus bombing while confidence in the authorities’ ability to protect the population from new terrorist acts is on decline, sociologists said.

Some 70% of Russians feared becoming victims of terrorist attacks in 2012. The percentage grew to 78% in November 2013, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax.

A suicide bomber blew up herself on a bus in Volgograd on October 21. Six people died and 55 were injured, including 20 minors. The bomber was 30-year-old Naida Asiyalova, a native of Dagestan and the wife of militant from Moscow Dmitry Sokolov, who was later killed together with his four accomplices during a police operation in Dagestan.

The survey showed that citizens still regarded the Caucasus (20%) and the Islamists, the Wahhabis and Al-Qaeda (16%) as the main sources of the threat of terrorism. The indicators stood at 10% each in August. A small number of people cited other sources of the terrorism. Nine percent said there was no terrorist threat, which was almost three times less than in August (26%).

Over half of Russians (54%) believed in April 2010, after the terror attacks in the Moscow metro, that such incidents could have been prevented. The opinion is shared by 41% after the Volgograd bombing. The percentage of the respondents who think that there is no protection from terrorism has grown from 33% to 49%, mostly in cities with one million residents (67%). People in big cities are more optimistic (56%).

Fifty-eight percent of the respondents were skeptical about the ability of the authorities to prevent new terror attacks. The indicator stood at 38% in August. The confidence of the respondents in the authorities has declined from 55% to 33%.

VTsIOM polled 1,600 persons in 130 towns and cities in 42 regions in early November.