IMMIGRATION RANKS 25TH ON THE LIST OF CONCERNS FOR RUSSIAN CITIZENS

Source: Vedomosti, October 24, 2006
The Russian Business Monitor (Russia)
October 25, 2006 Wednesday

The ethnic conflict in Kondopoga will be remembered for a long time to
come. St. Petersburg and Voronezh are on the way to becoming cities
dangerous for foreign students. Russians and Armenians are at each
others’ throats in the town of Bogandinsky in the Tyumen region.

Pollsters maintain that ethnic intolerance, once concealed, is
surfacing. Why would it do so? And why now?

The State Statistics Committee claims that real incomes in September
2006 were 10.1% greater than in September 2005, averaging 10,077
roubles a month. However, Russia’s richest 10% end up with 26% of
all income and the poorest 10% with 1%.

Russian citizens are dissatisfied with the existing system of health
care and education, the quality of housing and communal services,
corruption in local government structures and the police. The data
compiled by the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) indicate the public
is concerned about the following issues (in descending order): high
tariffs for housing and communal services (46%), alcohol abuse (37%),
inflation (36%), medical services and medicines they cannot afford
(32%), shortage of money for food and commodities (28%), difficulty
finding a good job (28%), bureaucracy and civil servants’ tyranny
(25%), drug abuse (25%), housing shortages (21%), unemployment (20%),
corruption (19%), low quality of medical and social services (16%),
and so on. Problems of immigration were mentioned by only 5% of
respondents, ranking 25th on the list of concerns for Russian citizens.