LEVADA-Center: The decisive rejection of anti-Semitism among Russians is rather weakly expressed

On February 7, 2006, the Levada Center published a traditional review, “The Socio-Political Situation in Russia in January 2006,” compiled from data obtained in the course of two studies. The first was held on January 4-20 and covered 2,100 people, the second on January 20-24 and covered 1,600 people.

In particular, 11% of respondents named “the influx of visitors and migrants” as problems that worry them, and 8% - “the growth of nationalism, the deterioration of interethnic relations.” However, both positions are only in the second half of the table of 24 positions (15th and 17th positions, respectively).

At the same time, 9% of respondents fear that in 2006 , “extreme nationalists will come to power”

When asked about the possibility of “facilitating” the provision of Russian citizenship to former Soviet citizens, the answers were distributed as follows:

36% of respondents believe that former citizens of the USSR, regardless of their nationality, should receive Russian citizenship in a simplified manner “because it is humane” ,

12% support this idea, but for a different reason: it will help Russia in solving its economic and demographic problems.

27% are sure that there should be no relief, because “people of not every nationality can be freely allowed into Russia.”

Another 18% fear that “the Russian nation will dissolve among visitors with different languages, beliefs and cultures.”

18% found it difficult to answer.

Separately, sociologists were interested in the attitude of Russians towards the attack on the Moscow synagogue (compare with the results of polls by FOM and VTsIOM ).

33% of respondents considered the incident “a crazy prank of a sick person, which should not be paid much attention to”

26% - a sign of “hostility of certain social groups towards Jews”

14% - a protest "against the dominance of alien non-Russian forces in Russia"

20% of respondents said they knew nothing about this and another 7% found it difficult to answer.

“In a more direct and distinct form, the level of anti-Semitic sentiment in Russia is revealed in the answers to the question about attitudes towards the views of people who “hate Jews and consider them enemies of Russia,” note the Levada Center.

Only 4% said they fully shared these views

Another 16% do not share their views on everything, but “they see that they are sometimes right.”

17% of respondents reacted to the massacre in the synagogue “indifferently, without much interest” ,

32% had a “generally negative” attitude towards it

22% believe that such views and sentiments are “harmful and dangerous for Russia”

Another 6% said that they had never encountered such people and sentiments, did not think about it, and 4% found it difficult to answer this question.

That is, sociologists from the Levada Center emphasize that the decisive rejection of anti-Semitism in the survey was expressed rather weakly.

Sources

• Socio-political situation in Russia in January 2006 // Levada-Center. 2006. February 7.