Levada Center: 48 percent of Russians dissatisfied with the federal government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic

A new survey that Open Media commissioned from the independent Levada Center reveals that 46 percent of Russians approve of the president and the government’s measures to fight the coronavirus epidemic. However, 48 percent of respondents remain dissatisfied: 30 percent think that current measures are insufficient and 18 percent think they are excessive.

The level of satisfaction with the actions of mayors and regional governors is somewhat higher. Among survey respondents, 50 percent think their handling of the situation is adequate, while 30 percent think their measures are insufficient, and 15 percent find them excessive. Trust in federal and local authorities in Moscow and other large cities is lower on average than in rural areas.

At the request of Open Media, the Levada Center’s sociologists also asked about how the “non-working” days are impacting the lives of Russians. While 44 percent of respondents are working as per usual, the remaining 56 percent have experienced changes to their work schedules. Among these respondents, 21 percent are fully or partially working from home, while 15 percent have been forced to take leave and have lost all or part of their wages. Only 8 percent went on leave while retaining their salaries in full. 

Private sector employees were disproportionately affected by changes to their work schedules. Among them, 59 percent of respondents said that their lives had changed, while 40 percent are working as they were before. For public-sector employees, the response was divided fairly evenly, with 52 percent saying that they have experienced changes and 48 percent working as per usual. 

Levada Center director, Lev Gudkov, links the difference in [public] approval of the federal and regional authorities to the “virtual” nature of the president and the government’s actions: “The president is persuading the population to sit at home, avoids direct responsibility, and does not say anything significant, shifting everything to the governors and their administrations. The governors are more specific and their actions are visible, that’s noticeable to the population.”

On the morning of April 30, Russian officials announced that the country recorded 7,099 new coronavirus infections in the past day, bringing the nation’s total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 10,6498 patients. Another 101 people reportedly died from the disease, raising Russia’s total number of fatalities caused by COVID-19 to 1,073.