(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The vast majority of people in Russia think their country needs a transformation, according to a poll by Bashkirova & Partners. 75 per cent of respondents say Russian society should change through gradual reforms, while 7.7 per cent think a radical change by the way of a revolution is the answer.

Russian voters renewed the State Duma in December 2007. United Russia (YR)—whose candidate list was headed by then president Vladimir Putin—secured 64.1 per cent of the vote and 315 of the legislature’s 450 seats. On that same month, Putin endorsed Dmitry Medvedev as a presidential candidate, and Medvedev said it would be of the "utmost importance" to have Putin as prime minister.

In March, Medvedev easily won Russia’s presidential election with 70.28 per cent of the vote. In May, Medvedev was sworn in as president. His nomination of Putin as prime minister was confirmed by the State Duma in a 392-56 vote.

On Sept. 29, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov called for the creation of a new European-Atlantic security treaty, saying that, currently, "We have a situation whereby the security structures, most of which have been inherited from the Cold War, are fragmented and are not very efficient in promoting real stability."

Last month, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev joined forces with Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev to create the Independent Democratic Party of Russia. Lebedev declared: "[Gorbachev] gave our people freedom, but we have not learned how to use it."

Polling Data

There are three basic kinds of attitudes about the society we live in. Which of the following ones comes closest to your own?

Source: Bashkirova & Partners
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,500 Russian adults, conducted from Jul. 31 to Aug. 7, 2008. Margin of error is 3.4 per cent.

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