MOSCOW – The share of Russians who think that their home country has enemies has substantially reduced, from 84 percent in September 2014 to 68 percent in December 2016, the Levada Center told Interfax.
Eighteen percent of 1,600 respondents polled in 137 populated localities on Dec. 9-12, 2016, said that Russia had no enemies (8 percent in 2014), and 14 percent were undecided.
Some 52 percent maintained that “Russia is actually threatened by numerous domestic and foreign enemies,” the sociologists said.
Yet 29 percent believe that “claims about enemies are being made to intimidate the population and to make it an obedient puppet of the authorities.” A fifth (19 percent) were undecided.
