(Angus Reid Global Scan) - Many adults in Russia are worried about security, according to a poll by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre. 36 per cent of respondents say they fear terrorist attacks to strategically important targets.

Chechen rebels have tried to secede from Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Several terrorist incidents have been blamed on the loose group, including two airplane crashes, a suicide bombing in Moscow and the assassination of Chechnya's president Akhmad Kadyrov in May 2004.

The latest assailment took place last September, when militants took control of a school in Beslan. The three-day siege left more than 335 people dead, many of them children. Another high-profile incursion occurred in October 2002, as secessionists took control of a packed Moscow theatre, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. The four-day standoff ended when law enforcement officers used Fentanyl gas to subdue the rebels, killing more than 100 hostages in the process.

The extinction of the Russian population due to low birth rate was second on the list of worries with 33 per cent, followed by a sharp decrease in the standard of living, an environmental catastrophe and the possibility of civil conflict in Russia.

In his Apr. 25 address to the State Duma, Russian president Vladimir Putin vowed to reverse Russia's current population decline, saying, "We cannot accept the fact that Russian women live almost 10 years, and Russian men almost 16 years less than people in Western Europe. (...) I am convinced that our first task is to make health care accessible and high-quality, and to revive disease prevention as a tradition of Russian medicine."

Polling Data

Which of these dangers causes the greatest fear to you personally?
(Several answers allowed)

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