MOSCOW, August 22. /ITAR-TASS/. Russians are proud of their country’s state symbols and would not want them to be changed, an opinion poll suggests.
Most of respondents said the current state symbols made them feel proud and aroused their admiration, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (WCIOM) said on Thursday. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they were proud of the Russian national flag; 57% of the coat of arms and 59% of the national anthem. Every tenth respondent showed indifference to the official state symbols (9% to the flag; 11% to the coat of arms and 10% to the national anthem). Only one percent of those polled said they actively disliked the Russian state symbols.
Returns canvassed from 1,600 people in 42 regions showed that 88% of those polled were quite satisfied to see the white-blue-red tricolor as the national flag while 7% wanted to restore the Soviet red flag with the hammer and sickle in its upper left corner. Two percent of respondents said Russia needed a totally new flag.
Eighty-five percent of respondents believed that the double-headed eagle was the most suitable symbol for contemporary Russia. Six percent of respondents spoke in favor of returning the old Soviet coat of arms while 3% supported the idea of creation of a totally different state emblem.
Sixty-one percent of those questioned said they would like the current national anthem to be preserved compared to 20% - predominantly Communists (33%) and people older than 60 (29%) - who said they wanted to restore the anthem’s Soviet version.
Six percent of the polled said they would prefer Mikhail Glinka’s Patriotic Song, which was Russia’s national anthem in 1990-2000, while 4% wanted an absolutely new national anthem for Russia.