More than half of the respondents are primarily concerned about rising prices, a third indicated concerns related to the conduct of a “special military operation”, three out of ten fear the threat of terrorist attacks. Concerns about inflation or the availability of medicine and education remain at a constant level, while worries about most socio-economic problems have subsided in the past few years. The recent terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall has noticeably exacerbated anxiety about possible terrorist attacks, as well as hostility towards migrants. The perception of social problems is significantly influenced by the respondents’ belonging to a particular social group.
Month: June 2024
Emigration sentiments and attitudes towards people who left Russia: March 2024
Only 9% of Russians would like to move abroad, this is the minimum figure for the entire observation period. There are several more such people among the youngest Russians, but even here the number of those wishing to emigrate has more than tripled in three years. The reasons for emigration are primarily the desire to provide children with a decent future, the political and economic situation in Russia, as well as interest in another culture. Among the areas of possible emigration, respondents more often name the United States, European countries and Turkey. One in six of the respondents among their relatives and friends have people who have gone abroad for permanent residence in the last 2-3 years, this proportion is higher among oppositional citizens. A negative or neutral attitude prevails towards those who have left.
The audience of Internet users, social networks, messengers and VPN services
Four out of five Russians access the Internet daily (in 2001, only 2%). Most of these are young respondents, but the number of older users is growing. Two thirds of the respondents regularly use social networks, and this proportion has tripled since 2011. The most popular social networks are VK and YouTube, and their audience continues to grow (for example, VK’s audience has tripled in 13 years). 80% of the respondents use messengers, and this number has doubled in 8 years. Whatsapp and Telegram are the most popular, and their audience is growing. A quarter of Russians use VNP services at least from time to time, over the past two years their share has hardly changed.
The role of television and the Internet as the main sources of news and the TOP most popular Russian journalists
Television remains the main source of information by audience reach and trust among Russians. At the same time, the combined audience of various news sources on the Internet exceeded the audience of TV news. Younger, educated and affluent respondents are more likely to get their news from the Internet. Older people, as well as less affluent and less educated respondents, are more likely to watch news on television. The audience of telegram channels has stabilized at the level of a quarter of the country’s population after a sharp increase in 2022. The audience of video blogs is slowly increasing, but the majority of respondents do not watch them. The most popular journalists, leading socio-political programs were V. Solovyov, O. Skabeeva, E. Popov, M. Simonyan and D. Kisilev. Independent bloggers and journalists are losing their audience.