More than half the people polled by the state-run VTSIOM social research organization distrust Russian police, officials, politicians and businessmen according to the results of a survey published on Monday.
“Russians incline to largely distrust politicians (53 percent), state officials and police (52 percent each), and businessmen (50 percent),” VTSIOM said.
More positively, among that professions that Russians consider most trustworthy are scientists and teachers (66 percent each). Russians also have higher levels of trust in servicemen (57 percent), doctors (54 percent) and the clergy (50 percent).
The new survey found, however, that Russians have lost their trust in some professions, including the clergy (down 15 percentage points), scientists, teachers and servicemen (down five percentage points), in comparison with a similar survey conducted in 2010.
The survey was conducted among 1,600 respondents in 46 Russian regions. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
