Without noise and dust – Newspaper Kommersant No. 11 (7456) dated 01/21/2023

The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) on Friday presented the study “Three years in office: government activities according to Russians” at the TASS agency. According to its results, the majority of citizens are rather satisfied with the work of the government as a whole and its Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. During the discussion, experts noted that the cabinet of ministers never became a “breakthrough government” due to the pandemic and the subsequent sanctions pressure, but successfully coped with “patching holes” and organizing teamwork.

presentation surveyheld from January 12 to 14, VTsIOM General Director Valery Fedorov began with social psychology: “Many things are forgotten (by society.— “b”) very fast. What happened at the beginning of the journey seems less significant than what happened yesterday. And the problem that has already been solved does not seem important, and the one that hurts now is exaggerated by public opinion.” Despite this, 68% of Russians assess the government’s three-year work as positive (22% believe that it worked “definitely well”, 46% – “rather well”). However, almost a quarter of respondents gave a negative assessment of the work of the Cabinet: 14% believe that the government is working “rather badly”, 8% – “definitely badly”.

Citizens satisfied with the work of the governmentnamed “social support measures / payments” (28%), “pension payments / attention to pensioners” (18%), “building roads / bridges” (11%), “development in the country / changes” ( 9%), “raising the standard of living / paying salaries on time” (8%).

Mr. Fedorov called the last answer a sign that “over the past three years we have become more moderate in our claims, since even the preservation of elements of a normal lifestyle is already assessed as a success.”

Those who turned out dissatisfied with the activities of the Cabinetblame him for rising prices (36%), declining living standards (20%), poor health care (14%), security problems (14%) and no wage growth (10%).

At the same time, answering the question, which government decisions they remembered the most, people remembered positive ones: for example, “social support for citizens, an increase in the minimum wage” (10%), “social guarantees for families with children” (10%), “indexation of pensions” (5%), “measures to combat coronavirus” (5%), etc.

When sociologists asked citizens about government achievements in specific areas, those called road construction and transport infrastructure (53%), social protection (40%), housing construction (38%), digital technologies (37%), medicine (35%), etc. 68% of respondents positively assessed the solutions governments in a pandemic, 27% negative. Actions in the conditions of Western sanctions were considered effective by 65% ​​of respondents, 23% do not agree with them.

When VTsIOM representatives asked people to talk about emotional perception activity of the government, in the first place (37%) came hope.

“This is our main emotion,” said Valery Fedorov. But the second place (24%) was occupied by anxiety. Disappointment in connection with the activities of the government experienced only 13% of respondents.

work specifically the Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin Russians rate it even better than governments as a whole: 30% of citizens believe that it works “definitely well”, and 40% “rather well”. 11% believe that the prime minister worked “rather badly”, and 5% – “definitely badly”.

Evgeniy Minchenko, President of the Minchenko Consulting communications holding, rated the work of the government as “four plus”. The team of Mikhail Mishustin was expected to become a “breakthrough government” after the “stagnation”, the expert explained.

But the Cabinet of Ministers could not “set the dynamics and a new strategy”, first because of the coronavirus, and then because of the energy crisis and sanctions pressure, and as a result, its work was reduced to “patching holes,” Mr. Minchenko believes.

As achievements of Mikhail Mishustin, the political scientist called building teamwork, increasing the level of interaction with other authorities, maintaining the national currency rate, and success in energy diplomacy.

Arseniy Belenky, Deputy Head of the Executive Committee of the All-Russian Popular Front (ONF) for expert-analytical work and coordination of thematic platforms, noted that the government “made numerous targeted decisions” over the three years of its work and, in general, coped with the main challenges: “Russia is quite stable passed the pandemic and is now going through the situation with sanctions.” The expert separately mentioned the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers on tourist cashback, which “affected many vacationers”, and the unification of social benefits.

During the discussion, Natalia Kravchenko, chairman of the commission for the development of preschool, school, secondary and vocational education and educational activities of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation, said that the government has not yet formulated strategic objectives in the field of education based on the future of the economy, because it is not yet clear in which sectors Russia will have to rely on its own strength, and where it can get by with imports.

According to VTsIOM ratings, since December last year, the level of trust in Mikhail Mishustin has grown from 59% to 62%. The Public Opinion Foundation gives a slightly different picture: over the month, the number of people who positively assess the work of the prime minister has decreased, but within the statistical error, from 57% to 56%.

Ksenia Veretennikova