Russians differ on whether Russia has opposition – poll

MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) – Forty percent of the respondents surveyed by the Public Opinion Foundation believe Russia has political opposition, 30% believe it does not, and the others were undecided.

The poll was conducted in 43 regions of Russia in mid October. It surveys 1,500 respondents.

Only 4% of those who believe Russia has political opposition believe it has a big influence on the situation in the state. Eighteen percent believe dissidents do not have a lot of influence on the situation in Russia and 15% believe they have no influence at all.

Twelve percent of the respondents said they believe the number of opposition supporters has recently been increasing, 3% believe it has been decreasing, and 15% believe it has not changed.

Most respondents have named the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party as opposition parties (13% and 10%, respectively), namely, their leaders Gennady Zyuganov and Vladimir Zhirinovsky (9% each). They are followed by Alexei Navalny (8%).

The respondents were divided on the issue of relations between the authorities and the opposition. Eight percent believe the authorities are behaving correctly “by letting the opposition speak, heading its opinion, having dialogue with it.” Another 8% believe the authorities are not behaving correctly, saying that “they are not talking to the opposition, are unjustly convicting opposition activists, imprisoning them and putting them in mental institutions.”