MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. Russians are losing interest in the Ukrainian affairs, viewing the situation in the neighboring country as anarchy and lawlessness, says a report of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) posted on its website on Wednesday.
"If in the first years of the domestic political crisis in Ukraine, the Russians, who were closely watching the situation, characterized developments as a civil war, in the past year they branded it as ‘chaos,’ ‘anarchy’, ‘lawlessness’ and ‘banditry’," the pollster said.
Since the beginning of the year, the Russians have begun losing interest in political affairs in Ukraine. Thus, sociologists say that in February 77% of Russian citizens followed the situation in the neighboring country with higher or lower frequency, but in June their number decreased by five percent.
Traditionally, young people show less interest as compared to older Russians.
Besides, the Russians do not believe that Russian-Ukrainian relations are improving as 36% call them tense and 25% hostile. A share of positive answers does not exceed 10%.
"In recent months, no objective reasons have been seen for a change in public assessments of the Ukrainian affairs. A lukewarm situation stirred up by Kev authorities in the southeast and their appeals to the ‘world community’ over Crimea do not count. Tensions does not seem to be on the rise, but nothing hints at improvement of the situation," said Stepan Lvov, the head of VTsIOM research department.
"That is why, Russians’ interest in the Ukrainian issue is fading to the background, as they are watching the news from that country less and less intently," he said. "One may say that Ukraine is transforming from an irritant into a routine and incessant source of negativity."
The VTsIOM-Sputnik opinion poll was held on June 5-7, 2017. The pollster questioned an audience of 1,800. The margin of error did not exceed 2.5%.