Russians believe that the most serious problems that the country faces now are connected with low salaries and living standards, the state of economy and the current social policy, a survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) shows.
"Low salaries and living standards as a whole have been leading the list of problematic issues for three months in a row, with 24% of Russians naming them (against 18% this past January and 14% in July 2016). Each fifth respondent (21%) is concerned with the state of economy (16% at the beginning of the year). Social policy is in top three: 18% in July (it was twice as little, 9%, a year ago)," the report says.
Russians also named the state of health care (17%), unemployment (14%), educational problems (12%) and low pensions (12%), inflation and corruption (each tenth respondent), as well as housing utilities issues (8%) among the current domestic problems. "The importance of most issues on the top ten problem rating for July is higher than a year ago, except for inflation," the Russian Public Opinion Research Center reported.
The head of Social Modeling and Forecasting Practice of the VCIOM Research Department Yulia Baskakova said, commenting on the poll results, that the problem rating is an indicator for discrepancy between reality and expectations, which shows the major deprivation points that lead to requests to authority.
According to her, the most acute issue today is the problem of material state, low salaries and the low level of life, which aggravate the second sore issue - social support. "These data add to the image, the contours of which can be seen from our other polls: the share of the poor has doubled as compared to 2014, and the price growth remains the main fear," TASS cited her as saying.
The vice-rector of the Academy of Labour and Social Relations Alexander Safonov, speaking to a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the growth of discontent among citizens of Russia with the economic situation and social policy against the background of economic recovery is indicative. "The poll by VTsIOM not just shows a real situation, but also the attitude of people towards it. The people are just tired of waiting for positive changes," he pointed out in the first place.
In addition, the mood of citizens was affected by the unusual increase in food prices. "Rosstat showed that food inflation increased sharply in June, it has even exceeded 4%, predicted by the Central Bank, and it was impossible to explain it by economic factors. Of course, it affected the people, which was manifested in complaints about low wages and social policies. Despite the fact that Rosstat shows an increase in real wage growth by 2% compared to the first half of 2016, in fact, it is growing only in very small sectors connected with the extraction of minerals. The population's real incomes, which depend on the social policy of the state, decreased by 1.4% by the same period," Alexander Safonov noted.
"It happened because there are no funds in most budgets, which means that it is necessary to reduce or optimize the costs for child allowances, allowances to elders, benefits," the vice-rector of the Academy of Labour and Social Relations concluded.
Professor of the RANEPA faculty of Finance, Money Circulation and Credit, Yuri Yudenkov, in turn, pointed out that under current conditions, when the inflation rate is close to zero, Russians need to change their expectations. "Previously, inflation was quite high, and we got used to constantly rising prices and salaries. Now, it's a shock for many," the expert explained.
"Now comes a new reality, when neither salaries nor prices rise, when we live in conditions of zero and near-zero inflation. And here it is necessary to change psychology. This also applies to banks, which are used to include all their operating costs in inflation, and enterprises, which, taking into account the fact that suppliers will provide them with raw materials at higher prices, included inflation in the selling price," Yudenkov summed up.
