The All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Studies (VTsIOM) has published an analytical report “Russia on the eve of presidential elections”, the Izvestia newspaper reports. Quoting recent opinion polls, VTsIOM analysts say Russians do not seem to be happy. “They have various opinions about the current situation in the country, the activities of the incumbent President and about Russia’s prospects,” the report says.

Meanwhile, the agenda of Mr. Putin’s second term has already been formulated by Russian citizens. “The number of Russians living below the subsistence level dropped from 25 percent to 20 percent in 2003,” Vladimir Sokolin, head of the State Statistics Committee, said at a news conference on January 28, 2003. “This is a very positive trend, but it is not normal that a fifth of the population of the world’s richest country is indecently poor, even according to official statistics,” he noted.

The conclusion is clear: the fight against poverty will be Mr. Putin’s key priority during his second term as President of Russia.

For Russian citizens, the fight against poverty is more important than economic goals. According to analysts, people do not believe that the problem of poverty and other social problems (access to education, healthcare etc) could be solved through doubling the country’s DGP over the next ten years.

According to the report, people want the state to return to the spheres such as culture, science and education, from which it in fact withdrew in the 1990. Russians hope that the President will fight against drug and alcohol abuse, improve healthcare, education and living standards, and provide affordable housing. They also expect the President to bring law and order to the country and fight against corruption.

While the attitude to the President is overall positive, this does not apply to the country’s authorities as a whole. Two thirds of respondents believe that the Russian authorities are unable to improve the situation in the country, the newspaper concludes.