Page 12 - RUSRptAug18

economic ties with the US," the pollster said. Some 48% of Russians do not expect any changes in Russian-US ties, and another 38% do not anticipate any progress, according to the survey.
Nine of out ten Russians (88%) say they don't want to live or work abroad, up from one in seven (70%) following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, according to the state owned pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM).
"An absolute majority of our fellow countrymen (88%) would not want to leave Russia to live in some other country," the Russian Public Opinion Research Center said in a report on June 3, Tass reports. "The share of those willing to leave remains practically the same - in 2011-2018 it has hovered at around 10 to 13%," it said. "Ten percent of those polled stated they would want to leave Russia, and this share reaches 31% among young people (18-24 years of age).
Many of the surveyed Russian nationals ready to abandon Russia failed to come up with concrete plans: 44% had not thought about when this would occur, while 41% had not taken any serious steps towards emigration.
However, each fourth respondent (26%) has relatives or acquaintances who have left Russia in recent years.
Three quarters (74%) of those polled have not been abroad at all in the past three years, while 18% have been to other countries for vacation or medical treatment, and another 4% have visited their relatives or friends living abroad.
Only a quarter (26%) of respondents have actually taken any concrete action to make plans to emigrate and begun researching the country they want to move to. One in five (22%) have started learning a foreign language, 21% have consulted their friends who have moved abroad, and 19% have started saving money.
The most popular emigration destinations are Germany (16%), the US (7%), Spain (6%) and Canada (5%).
12 RUSSIA Country Report August 2018 www.intellinews.com