The latest Levada poll on attitudes to the Yukos affair

The majority of Russians are convinced that public support led to positive changes in the treatment of Vasily Aleksanyan, former Yukos lawyer. This is the finding of the most recent poll by the Levada Centre, conducted in April 2008. More than 60% pointed to the major role played by letters and pickets in support of Aleksanyan in helping to improve his conditions of imprisonment.

Russian citizens also gave their views on the measure of restraint chosen by the investigation and the courts. More than half of respondents considered it was improper (or that it was “on the whole improper”) to imprison a gravely ill person who was accused of economic crimes. Only 20% thought this treatment to be proper (or “on the whole, proper”).

As concerns Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the most notable prisoner in the Yukos affair, the proportion of those who feel sympathy towards him has risen from 14% in September 2004 to 21% in April 2008, while those who do not sympathise have declined (from 63% to 53%, respectively). Among citizens who are well off the proportion of sympathisers rises to 28% and among those who are educated to 31%. Among Muscovites 57% express sympathy for Khodorkovsky, an increase of 16% over the last year.

The proportion sympathising with Khodorkovsky is on the rise, not least because of the way in which Russia’s citizens assess the Yukos affair. Asked about the nature of the case against the company, 35% of respondents declared that “if the authorities so wish, any businessman can be deprived of his business and property and sentenced to imprisonment”. That was the most popular reply among those chosen.

More than a third of Russians continue to follow the Yukos case though 40% say they are tired of such trials and do not want to hear any more about them.

The poll was conducted by the Yury Levada Analytical Centre between 11 and 14 April 2008. A total of 1600 individuals, aged 18 and over, were interviewed. Those polled were taken from a representative sample for the entire Russian Federation, reflecting the main socio-occupational and socio-demographic characteristics of the country’s adult population.