Survey: Most Russians see «greatness of Russia» in Crimea’s annexation

The share of Russian citizens who see Crimean annexation as a great achievement has significantly reduced, but there are still more than half of people supporting the move. This is reported by Coruption.info.

Russians are still positive about Crimea's annexation. Only arguments legitimizing this act were changed, shows a survey by "Levada Center."

"If in March last year the actions of the Russian leadership were viewed as a desire to protect the Russian population in Crimea and stabilize the situation in Ukraine, now the focus is on restoration of historical justice (40%) – the return of the historical territory," – comment the researchers on their findings.

72% of respondents see the annexation of Crimea as "Russia attempt to return to its traditional role as a "great power," asserting its interests in the post-Soviet space," 81% percent believe that "the annexation of the Crimea is a "great achievement" of the Russian leadership.

At the same time, the proportion of citizens, who positively assess the effects of occupation has fallen from 79% in May 2014 to 69% in March 2015.

At the same time 57% of respondents believe that Russia should keep its current borders in the future. 16% of respondents would like to see Russia in the USSR.

The number of Russians, who believe that Russia "has the right to annex the territories of the former Soviet Union, in case the rights of Russians living there are limited," dropped from 58% to 34%. 47% believe Russia has no right to do it. Only 10% of respondents believe that "the actions of Russia can be regarded by the international community as an annexation of territory and military intervention against a sovereign state."

It is noteworthy, that according to a survey conducted last year, more than half of Russians (67%) "did not agree to give up part of their income in order to increase economic support to the Crimea."

The survey by "Levada Center" was held on 13-16 March, 2015. The representative sample was Russian urban and rural population, consisting of 1,600 people aged 18 years and older living in 134 settlements of 46 regions of the country. The statistical error did not exceed 3.4%.