The majority of Russians prefer to stay away from the police

Many Russian people do not think they will be able to assert their rights in case the police violates them

Yury Levada's Analytical Center conducted an opinion poll by request of the Public Verdict Foundation in March 2005. The poll revealed that 67 per cent of respondents do not rely upon the Russian law enforcement structures and are even apprehensive of them. Over 78 per cent think that arbitrariness and anarchy in the law enforcement agencies pose a really serious problem in the society; and 75 per cent of respondents feel unprotected from this arbitrariness. Just 3.5 per cent of Russians say there is nothing illegal in doings of Russia's law enforcement structures. 1.6 per cent of respondents feel absolutely secured against this despotism.

In general, Russians are highly apprehensive of law enforcement structures. 72.5 per cent of respondents said either close people or themselves could fall victims of the police despotism.

Opinion polls reveal that majority of the population believe that authorities systematically employ the police as a mechanism to fight its political opponents. According to recent researches, 12 per cent of Russians think this happens regularly, 36.7 per cent say it happens often and only 6.4 percent of Russians say it never happens at all.

Many Russian people do not think they will be able to assert their rights in case the police violates them. And 54.9 percent do not believe that the court or the General Prosecutor's Office will be able to defend their rights in this case.

As based upon such results obtained during regular opinion polls, Yury Levada's Analytical Center defines the index of the police despotism - the index indicating what people think about their protection from illegal doings of the police, prosecutor's office and courts.

Sociologists state that the index will make up +25.7 for the next month (it made up +31.9 in February 2005). The drop in the index demonstrates that people are now less apprehensive of the police and trust law enforcement agencies more.