Page 36 - RusRPTMay21

2.15 Politics - misc
Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, passed a law enabling President Vladimir Putin to contest the presidency again on March 31. A number of the law’s provisions was formulated on the basis of amendments to the Constitution passed last year. The main change was a restriction on the number of presidential terms for one person was lifted in Putin’s case allowing him to run for two more terms to 2036. The law stipulates that the vacancy of Russia’s president is open to any citizen of Russia over 35 years of age, who has permanently resided in the country’s territory for no less than 25 years and does not have and never had citizenship or residence permit of another country. This rule does not apply to Russians who "earlier had citizenship of a state that was eventually incorporated entirely or in part into the Russian Federation in accordance with a federal constitutional law."
2.16 Polls & Sociology redistribution of poverty
The overwhelming majority of Russians (86%) consistently support the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, even if they oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a recent poll by independent pollster the Levada Center released on April 26.
Among the respondents who believe that the country is moving in the right direction, 95% support the annexation of the peninsula to one degree or another Levada reports. Among those who believe that the country is going in the wrong direction, the level of support for accession is lower at 78%.
Nine out of ten (94%) of respondents that approve of Putin support the annexation of Crimea and among those who disapprove of the president the level of support for the annexation is 75%.
A somewhat smaller, but at the same time, a consistently high two thirds (69%) of Russians, believe that the annexation of Crimea brought more benefits to Russia than harm. One fifth of respondents (18%) believe that the annexation has done more harm than good.
One of the effects of the government’s coronavirus relief program was a
from families with children to those without.
According to a new analysis from the Higher School of Economics, the
government’s support measures for families with children ages three to seven
helped their poverty levels decrease from 32% at the peak of the crisis to 24%
after receiving government payments. The opposite is true for families without
children, which saw rates of poverty more than double—albeit from a lower
starting point—from 3.8% before the pandemic to
8.3%
after government
payments.
36 RUSSIA Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com