Foreigners believe there are not enough public toilets in Moscow, yet they are pleased with high level of night club life

The results of a wide-scale research "Life In Moscow As Foreigners See It" which was conducted by the independent sociology centre ROMIR (Russian Public Opinion And Market Research) Centre on the instructions of the department of international relations of the city's government were quite unexpected for the city's authorities. Head of the department Georgy Muradov said this to journalists on Wednesday.

According to the poll data, foreigners are not content, in particular, with the work of traffic inspectors in Moscow, and the shortage of public toilets but they like the high level of the night club life and the environmental situation.

Muradov reported that at first ROMIR and a western sociological service asked 27,000 people from 18 countries (USA, many European countries, a number of Asian and Latin American states) to express their opinion on the life in Moscow as they see it. Then, ROMIR asked 40 foreigners, who permanently live and work in Moscow for at least two years, to more thoroughly answer questions. Sociologists consider this time-limit to be enough to form an opinion of the city, Muradov said.

According to him, the most unexpected for Moscow's officials was the respondents' critical attitude to the work of the capital's state traffic inspection on motor roads. Thirty-three out of the 40 pollees called its workers "bribe-takers". The majority of the respondents believe that bribes are bigger from foreigners than from Russians, said the department's head.

The respondents are not content either with high prices of apartments in Moscow, the shortage of middle-level hotels and public toilets as well as the low quality of gasoline.

As far as the architectural image of the capital is concerned, one half of the respondents believe that there is "a combination of styles which do not go with one another, and Moscow looks tasteless. The other half regards this as a Russian colouring, Muradov pointed out. Most respondents called residential districts faceless and railway stations dirty.

On the whole, the environmental situation in Moscow, Muradov said with reference to the research data, is assessed positively by foreigners who believe that in other major cities it is much more tense. The respondents also pointed to the deficit of information on ecological issues.

Replying to the questions pertaining to the level of the cultural sphere in Moscow, the majority of respondents pointed to a high level of the night club life in the capital, Muradov said. Interestingly, the participants in the poll, according to the ROMIR data, believe that the classic Russian literature is the main notion which is associated with the Russian culture on the whole.

"The capital's authorities will change several aspects of their policy on the basis of the poll's 'results", "Muradov promised.