VLADIVOSTOK, June 25. /TASS/. As many as 22 million people lived below the poverty line in Russia in the first quarter of 2017, with this number being by nearly seven percent down on the same period last year, chief of Russia’s Audit Chamber, Tatiana Golikova, said on Sunday.

"The most sensitive index where we have no positive changes so far is the social standard of living. Regrettably, the number of those living below the poverty line is high. There were 22 million such people in the first quarter of 2017," she said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel.

Nevertheless, she noted, the number of such people decreased in 2017 on the first quarter of 2016. "It was by 1.4 million people less than in the first quarter last year. But the figure is still very high," she added.