Thursday, 14 March 2019

Overwhelming majority of Crimeans would again vote to reunite with Russia, says poll


According to the poll, Crimea’s confidence in President Vladimir Putin’s is higher than in the rest of Russia, as viewed positively by 90% of the respondents.

SIMFEROPOL, March 14. /TASS/. Crimea remains positive about the peninsula’s reunification with Russia and if the referendum was held today, 89% of Crimeans would support joining Russia, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center announced the results of a poll on Thursday in Simferopol.

"The attitude towards Crimea’s reunification with Russia remains decisively positive. Eighty-nine percent would cast their votes to reunite with Russia if a referendum were held next Sunday, and 93% view the reunification in a positive light. The level of negative attitudes and support for an Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of Ukraine are minimal (3% each), the data says. The survey also noted that across Russia, 85% of respondents would support the reunification.

According to the poll, the reunification’s effects are also viewed positively. For instance, 86% of respondents believe that Crimea is developing more successfully as part of Russia, while 72% say that the reunification had a positive effect on their lives and the lives of their families. Moreover, 82% of respondents in Crimea are satisfied with their existence, which exceeds the same number across Russia (64%). More than half of those who participated in the survey (56%) are satisfied with their financial standing.

The majority of respondents (59%) also say they have noticed positive changes on the peninsula in the last year. Road works, power supplies and an improvement in communities were listed as the spheres of biggest developments.

According to the poll, Crimea’s confidence in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s is higher than in the rest of Russia. His work is viewed positively by 90% of the respondents (64% across Russia) and only 3% expressed a negative attitude.

The Russian Public Opinion Research Center conducted a nationwide poll on March 12, 2019, among respondents over 18 years of age. The poll was carried out via phone interviews with 1,600 people and margin of error being no more than 2.5%. The Center’s regional survey in Crimea was conducted on March 10.

Source: ITAR-TASS 14-03-2019