MOSCOW, May 07. /ITAR-TASS/. One-third of Russians believe that nationalists, who “staged a coup d’etat” have taken advantage of the citizens’ protests in Ukraine, and 32.4% of Russia's residents believe that these disorders have been provoked “by specially trained militants,” according to an opinion poll conducted by the Foundation for Civil Society Development (FCSD).

According to the poll results, published by the FCSD press service, 39.1% of Russians attentively follow the developments in the neighbouring country. Another 45.1% of respondents admitted that although they did not specially keep track of the events, they nevertheless “try to be aware.”

The poll was conducted in April and was fully devoted to the self-identification of Russians and the state of ethnic self-awareness. The poll also included sets of questions about Ukraine and political preferences of Russians.

The set of questions, devoted to the attitude to the state leaders and bodies of authority has shown a high level of confidence in Russia's President Vladimir Putin. The activity of the Russian leader is approved by 78.3% of respondents, the poll shows.

Those polled were also asked for which of Russian parties they would vote at the State Duma (lower house of Russian parliament) elections if the voting was held in the coming Sunday. As many as 47.7% of those polled supported the United Russia party; 6.7% of respondents are currently ready to vote for the Communist Party (CPRF), 4.9% for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), 3.6% for the A Just Russia party; 14.2% of Russians were undecided, and 15.6% said that they would not go to the polls.

The study is based on the results of an all-Russian opinion poll (1,617 respondents in 118 populated localities of 48 constituent entities of the Russian Federation) and on the materials of focus groups (43 focus groups in 21 Russia's constituent entities), conducted in April. The error margin does not exceed 2.5%