Translated material
I find it difficult to note
Russians assess government activities neutrally
Russians are quite indifferent to the activities of the Cabinet of Ministers and do not expect miracles from it. This was shown by a study by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion. "Successes and failures in government work." 35% of respondents do not see any achievements over the past year (another 39% found it difficult to answer), while 17% did not notice any setbacks or failures (49% also found it difficult to answer). Those who do note the activity of the executive branch credit the ministers for the increase in salaries and pensions and the generally stable development of the country, but blame, among other things, the crisis, the failure of the team at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric station .For the government's report on the results of its activities for the year before the State Duma, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion prepared a survey on how ordinary Russians evaluate the work of the Cabinet. Study participants answered two questions: “In your opinion, have there been any significant achievements or successes in the government’s work over the past year? If yes, name them (open-ended question, no more than three answers),” and “Were there any serious failures, failures, if so, name (open-ended question, any number of answers).”
Most people this year, as in the past, recognized the main merit of the Cabinet of Ministers in increasing salaries, pensions, benefits and their regular payments - 13%. At the same time, 7% of respondents believe that the main failure is the increase in unemployment and untimely payment of wages. 4% praised the ministers for adopting an effective anti-crisis plan, 6% blamed them for the crisis itself.
In general, a clear antagonistic nature of the majority of answers in the two lists is visible: 2% of respondents noted the development of the social sphere (education, healthcare), 4% - miscalculations in the social sphere (unaffordability of medicines, education reform), 2% - reform of the army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 1 % - problems in law enforcement agencies (Ministry of Internal Affairs, army). 2%, together with the government, are proud of winning the right to host the Olympics in Sochi, 4% are worried about the decline of sports and the failure at the Olympics in Vancouver. 1% each noted success in the fight against corruption and ineffective fight against this phenomenon. Also, 1% believe that last year the development of the mortgage lending program and housing construction were successful, and, conversely, 1% of respondents listed the unaffordability of housing as failures.
In the list of significant achievements, 2% of citizens included “successes in foreign policy”, 1% each noted “generally stable development of the country”, “successes in demographic policy” and “introduction of innovations, course towards modernization of the country”. Among the failures, survey participants included a decline in living standards, housing and communal services problems (3% each), inattention to agriculture, and the failure of national projects (2% each). Another 2% consider the entire work of Putin’s cabinet a failure. 1% each noted a decline in industry, an unstable situation in the country, and a decrease in the level of security in the country. 1% believes that it is the cabinet of ministers that is to blame for the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station.
Compared to similar surveys conducted last year and the year before, the number of people blaming the government for the crisis has decreased - from 19% in 2009 to 6% this year. The number of those who blamed inflation as a failure has decreased significantly - 22% in 2008, 8% in 2009 and only 6% in 2010.
It is worth noting that when answering the first question, 39% answered “there were no achievements,” and 35% of respondents chose the option “I don’t know.” Answering the second question, 17% believed that there were no failures or setbacks, and another 49% found it difficult to answer. It turns out that the majority of the population simply has little idea of what the executive branch does, or does not think much about it.
The all-Russian poll by VTsIOM was conducted on March 6-7, 2010. 1.6 thousand people were surveyed in 140 settlements in 42 regions, territories and republics of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.