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A new survey by the independent Levada Centre showed that the proportion of Russians self-identifying as Orthodox Christians rose four-fold in the past 24 years. Today, two out of three Russians regard themselves as Orthodox Christians, compared to just one in six in 1989, in the last days of the USSR. The poll of 1,603 people found that 68 percent said that they were Orthodox Christian, up from 17 percent in 1989. The proportion identifying as Muslim also rose from about 1 percent in 1991 to 7 percent today. The number of Russian Catholics and Protestants remained roughly the same, at about 1 percent. About one in five Russians, or 19 percent, stated that they weren’t religious, compared to 75 percent in 1989, when atheism was the official state ideology, and 53 percent in 1991, after the Soviet collapse.
Most Orthodox believers aren’t regular church-attenders, with only 4 percent saying that they attended services once a week. Some 35 percent said that they never went to church, whilst 17 percent said that they went to services a few times a year. Some 62 percent of Orthodox Christians and Catholics also said that they never received Communion, down from 83 percent in 1991, whilst 8 percent said that they took part in the sacrament a few times a year. Levada ran the poll on 15-18 November 2013 in 130 cities, towns, and villages across 45 Russian federal subjects. The statistical margin of error was +/- 3.4 percent. After decades of repression and official disapproval, Orthodoxy gained greatly in influence in the past 20 years. Besides that, there’s been a major programme of church-building across the country to serve believers’ spiritual needs.
24 December 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131224/185903098/Orthodox-Christian-Belief-Rises-among-Russians–Poll.html
Voices from Russia 
Two-thirds of Russians Believe “Crimea and the Eastern Ukraine are Essentially Russian Territory; Russia has the Right to Use Military Force to Protect their People”
Tags: Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, Levada Centre, Opinion poll, political commentary, politics, Polls, Putin, Russia, Russian, Russian armed forces, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, VTSIOM
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On 7-10 March, Levada Centre did a survey analysing public reaction to recent events in the Ukraine. Most respondents (53 percent) admit that they’re “not too well-versed” on the Ukrainian events, whilst another 15 percent said that they don’t know what to believe. 47 percent of Russians believe that our domestic media coverage on the Ukraine is “mostly objective” and 16 percent believe that the information supplied by the media is “fair overall”. The overwhelming majority of respondents (67 percent) blame the worsening situation in the Crimea on “radical Ukrainian nationalists”. Another 16 percent of Russians fingered “mafia groups”, and 9 percent fault Crimean Tatar nationalists. Half of Russians… 49 percent… wholeheartedly support the Crimea’s annexation to Russia, another 30 percent “mostly support” this step. Those advising that we should refrain from such an action are 12 percent. In response to a question about why they’d consider sending Russian forces to the Crimea and to other Ukrainian areas legitimate, the majority of Russians (65 percent) stated, “Crimea and Eastern Ukraine are essentially Russian territory; Russia has the right to use military force to protect their people”.
According to another poll conducted by VTsIOM, the approval rating of President Vladimir Putin reached its maximum point over the last three years at 71.6 percent. A VTsIOM statement said, “The previous maximum value of this index was in May 2012 (68.8 percent), immediately after Putin’s inauguration as head of state”.
13 March 2014
Nakanune.ru
http://www.nakanune.ru/news/2014/3/13/22344840/