About 26% of Russians refuse to talk about thesituation in the country as they fear of being persecuted.
Almost half of respondents (49%) are reluctant to express their views when they are interviewed; 56% of them are apprehensive about negative consequences for themselves,” a recent survey conducted by Yuri Levada Analytical Center says.
Another 20% said that the truth is inconvenient for them. 9% anticipated being hailed by a person conducting the survey.
According to Alexei Grazhdankin, a deputy director of the centre, while being interviewed people might show more loyalty to the government than they actually have. Pro-opposition people are often afraid to speak their mind freely.
“This is called ‘the spiral of silence’. People follow the majority; they are too scared to cut through the clutter; not wanting to ‘trouble trouble’, they use pre-canned positive mantras as responses to our questions,” political consultant Konstantin Kalachev told the influential Russian newspaper Kommersant.
The survey was conducted in November, 2015 in 48 regions of the country.
