Russian territorial integrity must be protected at any cost – poll

(Interfax – MOSCOW, September 18, 2013) Russia should be preserved within its current borders at any cost, said 93% of citizens polled by the Public Opinion Foundation in September.

Some 57% of 1,000 respondents polled over the phone said there was a threat to Russian territorial integrity. Such answers were mostly given by citizens older than 60 (69%), vocational school graduates and residents of cities with a population from 250,000 to 1 million (63% in each category).

The opposite opinion was expressed by 34% of the respondents, and 10% were hesitant.

Nearly half of the respondents (48%) presumed that some regions of Russia wanted to be independent. Some 35% said there were no such regions and 18% failed to answer the question.

A total of 96% of the respondents gave a negative answer to the question if “they had heard rumors about secession from Russia in their region lately.” Seventy-six percent said that possible secession of a region from Russia would have negative effects.

Some 15% of the respondents believe that immigration from China was threatening the Russian Far East. Nine percent deemed immigration to be a threat. Eight percent argued an external threat, 7% worried about Kuril Island disagreements with Japan, and 4% said the domestic policy of the Russian authorities harmed national integrity.

The vast territory of Russia has more pros than cons, 82% of the respondents said, quoting natural resources as the main argument to support their opinion (51%).

Eleven percent said the vast territory was not an advantage because of management problems (29%), irrational use of natural resources (16%) and poor connection between regions (7%).