Poll shows 80% of Russians ready to give up Western food

About 80% of Russians are ready to give up Western foodstuffs for the sake of strengthening the state, according to an all-Russian poll presented by the Sociology Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, only about 10% of the respondents agreed to their wage and pension freeze in coming years and 12% could consent to tax hikes.
As many as 64% of those polled agreed to giving up Western manufactured goods, 55% said they could do without tourist and business trips to the United States and Europe and 51% of the respondents said they could refuse to keep their savings in foreign currency.
Meanwhile, 37% of the respondents said they were ready to give up the Internet and social networks.
"While assessing the direction of social changes in the country over the past year, Russians came divided into two numerically comparable groups noting changes for the better (45%) or for the worse (43%)," the research authors said.
A total of 54% of the respondents assessed their general emotional and psychological state positively compared with 63% in 2013 while 46% perceived it negatively compared with 37% in 2013.
The respondents also assessed different aspects of their life. Specifically, 41% of those polled said they had no problems with nutrition while 5% assessed it as bad.
About a third of the respondents said everything was fine with their clothes, housing and work while good family relations were noted by 61% of those polled.
As many as 36% of Russians assessed their life as good and only 5% admitted it was bad.
The poll revealed a high degree of social stratification. The poorest 10% of Russian citizens have a monthly income of less than 5,000 rubles per person ($74 at the current exchange rate) while the rich earn 43,500 rubles ($643), excluding the top 3-5% of the most wealthy people who ignore polling, the researchers said.
The poll was conducted in November 2014 and covered 4,000 adult Russians representing all economic regions in Russia, all types of communities and demographic groups.