2006 has become the year of sounding murders, hazing and bashing. These are the results of the Russian Centre for public opinion polls. Citizens are not practically interested in other domestic problems. Authorities made the public not behold them, sociologist state.

Respondents were offered to pick out from one to five the most significant political events of the list. The case of Andrey Sychev, who had suffered from hazing, was on the first place (48%). Slightly less than that – 40% - marked the elimination of the terrorist Shamil Basaev. 27% found the sounding murders of the second in command of the Central Bank Andrey Kozlov, a journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the former lieutenant colonel Aleksander Litvinenko the most important. About 20% mentioned the international storms in Kondopoga and the justification of Oleg Scherbinskiy, who had been accused of the death of Michael Evdokimov, the governor of the Altaic.

15%  considered the electoral reform (the elimination of the column “against all’ and of the minimum presence) worth mentioning. 11% gave their voices to the regional legislative bodies and to the initiation of the “Fair Russia”. Nevertheless the debates on the “sovereign democracy”, which is being intensively talked about by the leaders of the Russian politics including the first vice-premier Dmitriy Medvedev, were mentioned only by 5%. With that citizens are very well interested in the main political question about power. 24% called the race for succession of the president of great moment (the fourth place after Sychev, Basaev and Kozlov).

Respondents found the list of the sociologists exhaustive. Only 1% wished to include there something else.  

The Centre also asked the citizens to call the triple of the most important events of the year. The column “be at loss to say” won with wide margin, taking 56%. The antigeorgian campaign took the second place (8%), the third place was shared between the famous Sychev`s case and sounding murders, as well as price advance and the realization of the national projects (by 5%).

The head of the central executive committee  of the “United Russia” Andrey Vorobjev called the realization of the national projects the leading event, and the administrative secretary of the central council of the “fair Russia” Igor Zotov considered the initiation of his party to be the most important event. Ivan Melnikov, the second of command of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, turned out to be closer to public. He mentioned the tragedy in Kondopoga. He doesn’t exclude the excesses in any of the Russian cities due to the corruption and lack of the well-thought-out migration policy.

The experts believe that the main event of the 2006 is the energetic activity of Russia and the rise of “Gazprom”. This was a year of the energy”,  the director general of the Centre for current politics of Russia Konstantin Simonov agrees.

The results of the polls mentioned below demonstrate that there`s no public politics in Russia. It  has transformed into the shady level, Sedov supposes. People watch politics as an entertainment. This is typically for the stable societies, Byzov adds. According to his words, the authoritieas are at door of the social apathy. In the 90-th there was a perception that politics influenced public life. Today nobody is interested in what`s going on  in regulatory bodies.

Published: “Vedomosti”,  21 December, 2006.