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According to a recent poll, a large percentage of the Russian people long for Soviet order and discipline as demonstrations rock the nation’s capital over candidates for coming municipal elections.
More people in Russia view the late Brezhnev era of the Soviet Union as “close to the people” than they do President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, according to a survey by the independent Levada Center pollster, reported The Moscow Times.
Russians have expressed increasingly positive opinions about the Soviet Union over the years, with nostalgia toward the U.S.S.R. and Stalin hitting record highs in recent months. Putin’s popularity has meanwhile been lagging amid widespread poverty and controversial pension reforms.
Many Muscovites, who are used to living on the crumbs from the ruling elite, do not want the situation changed, while in rural Russia, conditions are much harsher.
When asked to characterize Russia’s current leadership, 41% called it “criminal and corrupt” and 31% called it “distant from the people and alien.”
Another 24% called the regime “bureaucratic,” 19% “shortsighted” and 15% “inconsistent.”
