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Most Russians say 'no' to closing space projects

According to the poll, the share of the population who believe in Russia' s predominant role in space research has doubled from 30% in 1998 to 60% in 2015

MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. Most of the respondents polled by the All-Russia Center for Studies of Public Opinion (VTSIOM) said they were against Russia's closing space projects. "As a leader in space exploration Russia should uphold and build up the volume of its space projects," VTSIOM quoted the respondents as saying on the eve of Cosmonautics Day Russia will celebrate this weekend.

The overwhelming majority (87%) are against curtailing space projects. Around half of the respondents (47 %) said they want space projects to be broadened, and 40% said that the space exploration program in its present volume was sufficient. Even despite economic hardships most of the respondents (59%) said that the volume of state financing of space programs should not be cut. Every sixth out of 100 respondents interviewed have suggested increasing the share of budgetary funds earmarked for space projects.

Only 15% said that the expenditures on space projects should be slashed.

The share of the population who believe in Russia' s predominant role in space research has doubled from 30% in 1998 to 60% in 2015, while around 25 % said that Russia had lost its leading positions in space, which is regretted by 21% , while the remainder 4% said they did not care.

A total of 62% of the respondents prefer international cooperation in space exploration, while 29 % said Russian should rather give up international projects because of worsening relations with western partners.

The VTSIOM pollster interviewed 1,600 respondents in 132 settlements on 46 territories of the Russian Federation.