A poll conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) indicates that today Russian society is united as never before.
"In the period from 2012 to 2015, the proportion of respondents who agree that there is national unity in Russia increased from 23% to 54%: young people (60%), people with a higher education (57%), elderly (51%) and uneducated (46%)," RIA Novosti reports.
According to 18% of respondents, it is due to the ability of the people of our country to unite in difficult times. 13% explained the high level of social cohesion was due to the Russian mentality. The political course of the country's leader was also among the factors.
Among the dividing factors the Russians named selfishness (39%), a high level of social stratification on a material basis (10%), and lack of a national idea (5%).
The poll was conducted on October 17-18 in 46 constituent parts of Russia, around 1600 people took part. The poll’s margin of error is no more than 3.5%.
The director of the Center for Socio-Political Monitoring of the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA) RANEPA, Andrei Pokida, told Vestnik Kavkaza that "this is due to the foreign environment." "Some successes which have been observed over the past year also affect it. For example, the Olympic Games. In addition, the confrontation with the West due to the crisis in Ukraine affects the growth of patriotism and unity of the people," he said.
"The foreign policy is prevalent here, but there is still the economic and social situation, which is deteriorating now. We see an increase in the number of unemployed, a decline in real wages by 10%. It may have a negative impact on the consolidation of the population," Andrei Pokida summed up.
The President of the Minchenko Consulting Communication Group, Yevgeny Minchenko, believes that in this case there are several factors. "On the one hand, there is the factor of external pressure, which is unfair, according to most of the population. On the other hand, there is the return of pride, self-esteem and sense of self-righteousness by Putin," the expert suggested.
He added that, "first of all, the conflict inside the elite and the sharp deterioration in the socio-economic situation will have an impact on the mass consciousness". "Each factor separately undermines nothing, but together they can create serious problems," Yevgeny Minchenko noted.
The director of the Center for Political Information, Alexei Mukhin, also believes that the unity of society is due to "the external influence". "The anti-Russian sanctions and nervous international situation are consolidating Russian society," he said.
At the same time, "the social instability, failure of social obligations by the state may change the situation for the worse." "We have been through this in the early 1990s. But at this stage it is nonsense to predict the failure of the state to fulfill its social obligations," the expert believes.
