MOSCOW, April 03. /ITAR-TASS/. The All-Russia Public Opinion Research Centre (VTSIOM) on Thursday published quite remarkable statistics indicating that Russian people appreciate order in the country far more than democracy. Russians tend to describe order as stability and justice, and not the authorities' violation of their rights in the name of so-called order.

On March 8-9, 2014 the public opinion specialists surveyed 1,600 men and women of age in 130 cities of 42 Russian regions.

“As far as our country is concerned, 71% of the surveyed believe that order is above all, even to the detriment of some democratic principles”, the pollster said. Such an attitude is traditionally supported by Russia’s Communist Party affiliates and most elderly people.

“The most curious fact is that the surveyed have not changed their opinion for fifteen years”, the research center said.

The concept of order, however, is understood differently: 45% of the surveyed interpret it as the country’s political and economic stability, 29% consider it to be the rule of law, while the other 20% believe that order gives everyone an opportunity to exercise their legal rights.

The poll shows that today one in five believes that the democratic principles need to be strictly observed, despite the fact that it can give more freedom to "destructive elements" in the society. This idea is supported mostly by young people in Moscow and St. Petersburg; 47% of the surveyed understand democracy as the freedom of expression, of the press and faith, while 24% said that the country’s economic development is an essential part of any democracy, and 19% value the rule of law above all.

The public opinion center said that the number of respondents who define democracy as order and stability or electivity of all high officials has sufficiently decreased during the last ten-year period. The error margin did not exceed 3.4%.