The Speaker of the Council announced the absence of xenophobia in Russia. Sociologists say the opposite

The speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko said that in Russia there is no anti -Semitism and xenophobia. The politician voiced such a statement on Monday, RIA Novosti agency reports her words. On the same day, the head of the Levada Center, Lev Gudkov, said that the number of xenophobes in the country and sympathizers reaches 45 percent.

According to the Levada Center, the Ksenofobov nucleus is from eight to 15 percent of the adult population, Gudkov said at a press conference on Monday. His words quoted by Interfax.

According to the Levada Center, the level of xenophobic sentiments in Russia decreases, but remains higher than 27 years ago, from the moment of Russia proclaims independence. Until 2013, Gudkov said, Xenophobes had attitudes against the inhabitants of the Caucasus, now they were replaced by anti -shang and anti -immigrant sentiments, especially in relation to workers from Central Asia, racist attitudes against Chinese and black and anti -chain sentiments. Anti -Ukrainian sentiments have also grown in the country, a sociologist noted.

20-30 percent in addition to the kernel of xenophobes sympathizes with him and are ready to approve repressive measures against migrants or persons of other nationalities by the state, the sociologist notes. At the same time, researchers note a decrease in the number of people who are sharply against xenophobia-from about half of the population in the 90s to 25-30 percent of the population now.

Monitoring the level of xenophobia "Levada-Center" has been conducting annually since 2004, the organization’s website reports . What data was used by Matvienko, claiming the absence of xenophobia in the country, agencies do not report.