Page 25 - RusRPTJun19

Berdnikov walked out of the primaries and announced he would run for the city council as an independent candidate.
In the Khabarovsk region, where United Russia is particularly unpopular (the governor elected last year is from the nationalist LDPR party), something interesting is happening: a new movement called “Time for Change” appeared out of the local United Russia office and has become the front through which the primaries were organized. The movement’s manifesto, published in late April, called on United Russia to “recognize its mistakes and correct them, not through speech but with real actions.” A month later, “Time for Change” looked to be in charge of most of the primaries’ organization with the benediction of local governor Sergey Furgal as well as United Russia secretary Andrey Turchak. Sources in the Khabarovsk region described the new movement as the result of a “split” inside the local United Russia office, an explanation that doesn’t really square with how smoothly this new organisation entered the picture and the support from high-ranking United Russia members it received. This could also be an experiment designed to showcase one way to react to United Russia’s deepening unpopularity.
2.11 Polls & Sociology
In Russia, living conditions have improved, but poverty is not decreasing. Every two years, Russian statistics agency Rosstat conducts a nationwide large-scale interview survey that extensively surveys the living conditions, livelihoods, housing and health status of the population. The results of the interviews conducted in autumn 2018 were published at the end of March. A total of 60,000 households across Russia were interviewed. According to the results, in many households, economic scarcity has eased slightly. In the autumn of 2018, half of households thought they could spend a week outside their home, compared to 43% two years earlier. Two thirds of households estimate that they can buy two pairs of shoes per year for all their members. In 2016, only half of households estimate this. Instead, extreme poverty has fallen only slightly, and 15% of respondents just said they could hardly cover the necessary expenses. Rosstat's revenue statistics also point in the same direction. Last year, 13% of the population (19mn people), ie with lower income than the official minimum income.
Nearly half of Russians support equal rights for members of the LGBT community, marking the highest level of support in 14 years, according to the independent Levada Center pollster. Since Russia banned the display of “gay propaganda” to minors in 2013, authorities have refused to authorize gay pride events across the country and polls have shown worsening attitudes toward sexual minorities. Forty-seven% of Russian respondents agreed that “gays and lesbians should enjoy the same rights as other citizens,” the poll released Thursday showed, while 43% disagreed. When asked the same question in 2013, the year the “gay propaganda” law passed, 8% fewer Russians agreed that LGBT people deserve equal rights (39%). The increase in support since 2013 can be attributed to the gradual decline in anti-LGBT sentiment appearing on TV over the past six years, political analyst Alexei Makarkin told the RBC news website. “But if fired-up people yelling about Russia’s perverted, millennia-old moral foundations are shown again,” he warned,” the degree of intolerance toward the LGBT community will rise again.”
25 RUSSIA Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com