Most Russians think President should eliminate poverty

The President of Russia should be concerned with eliminating poverty according to 37% of those interviewed by the ROMIR Monitoring Company in May of this year. An additional 34% of respondents gave the opinion that the top priority of the head of state should be to raise the well being of the people.

22% of those interviewed thought the President should be concerned with unemployment, while 21% thought the country needs economic development. 20% responded that the housing sector needs first attention, and 19% placed the fight with bureaucratic corruption as most important. 14-16% of those surveyed supported the position that achieving peace in Chechnya, health care, and timely salary and pension payment should be first priorities.

Reducing oligarchs' influence on officials and restoring military power, according to respondents, should not be the President's top tasks. As such, only 1% of those surveyed placed before the President the task of developing democracy. In addition, 41% of Russians considered that not much depends on the people in the country, and that they are not ready to give their support to the President. Accordingly, they considered that resolving problems is the direct responsibility of government officials. About 35% of respondents said they are ready to show support to the head of Russia.

Interestingly, the young generation is ready to help the President; 45% of young people age 18-24 firmly answered, 'yes' to this question. 1,630 people participated in the survey.