Date of Publication: 04.06.2012

28% of Russians agreed with the statement “I do not trust Muslims,” 25% – with the statement “I do not trust the Jews” – this is from the nationwide survey data.

Russian women are more loyal to the Jews than Russia men: their level of distrust is at 30% of men and 21% of the fair sex. For Muslims, the most critical constituents of Mikhail Prokhorov’s, where 38% said they did not trust the followers of Islam. The largest share of those who are “suspicious” – they among respondents with low education and residents of the Northwest District, while the most “gullible” citizens live in millionaire-cities (except Moscow).

FACT: 20% of Russians at the same time do not trust the Muslims, or Jews in general, according to respondents with secondary education, and residents of small towns and villages.

9% of Russians do not trust the Russian Orthodox faith. As it turned out the groups that more than others do not trust the Orthodox are pensioners, large families, the most wealthy respondents, non-believers and Christians who do not regard themselves to any of the denominations. However, the highest proportion among those who do not trust the Orthodox are those who do not trust Patriarch Kirill as well, and whose confidence in the Russian Orthodox Church in recent years has decreased. Significantly more often those who do not trust Muslims, Jews and Orthodox are respondents who said they did not believe in God.

FACT: 6% of Orthodox respondents agree with the statement “I do not trust the Orthodox.”

74% of Russians do not agree with the statement “I feel a distaste for the Muscovites.” In their dislike for the residents of the capital 14% of our compatriots admitted to it. With the statement “I dislike the Muscovites” 24% of residents of the Urals and Siberian federal districts agreed, and 18% of residents of small towns and townships. The most “friendly” toward the Muscovites were those polled from the Far East, the North Caucasus and Central Districts – there only &% of respondents do not like people in the capital.

FACT: 4% of Muscovites agree with the statement “I feel a distaste for the Muscovites.”

12% of Russians do not have confidence in the intelligentsia. There is especially high distrust of intellectuals in the North-West Federal District, as 18% of residents of the region admitted, as well as by entrepreneurs and managers at various levels: 22% of respondents holding senior positions said they did not trust the intellectuals.

FACTS: Respondents with higher education and an Internet audience demonstrated the lowest degree of flatness in respect of all the groups: the proportion who disagreed with the statement “I do not trust …” was among the greatest. Most of the electorate of Vladimir Zhirinovsky do not trust anyone, while the supporters of Sergey Mironov were much less likely than other voters to mark their distrust of anyone.

Whose opinion is closer to you?

 Andrew Glotser, a spokesman for the Chief Rabbi of Russia:

The figures, of course, are not very pleasant. There is no doubt that it is possible on the basis of this data that we can speak of widespread xenophobia in Russian society. However, in reality, the level of intolerance is even higher than by your fixed polling; a notorious 9% -28%.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church and Society: Our society, contrary to the estimates of skeptics, has a high level of confidence, and the level of xenophobia in Russia is lower than in many other countries. People are becoming more tolerant and have great respect for others.

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The material is based on data from a nationwide survey, in which the Russians were invited to mark their agreement or disagreement with the following statements:

1. “I do not trust the Muslims”

2. “I do not trust the Jews”

3. “I do not trust the Orthodox”

4. “I do not trust the intellectuals”

5. “I dislike the Muscovites”

Experts’ Commentary on the Survey’s Findings

Andrew Glotser, a spokesman for Chief Rabbi of Russia

Statistics of the Study of Anti-Semitism in Russia

The figures, of course, are not very pleasant. There is no doubt that it is possible on the basis of these data, we can speak of widespread xenophobia in Russian society. However, in reality, the level of intolerance is even higher than your fixed polling; a notorious 9% -28%.

 Such a conclusion can be drawn on the basis of opinion polls that were conducted in May and August 2010. The results are as follows: 25% of Russians do not agree to live side by side with the Jews, and in 46% of Russians dislike the idea of marriage of their relatives with the Jews. This is despite the fact that only an absolute minority openly declares itself anti-Semitic (according to the polls that were in the last few years the number of people declaring themselves anti-Semites hovers around 2-3%). An explanation of these statistics is simple: not all respondents were willing to openly acknowledge themselves as anti-Semites, but the responses to the so-called “indirect” questions, it is obvious that in the public mind there are still tenacious anti-Semitic phobias, although in a latent form.

The expert group analyzed the Jewish community in Russia and their situation in early 2012, and we came to the conclusion that, while in 2010-2011 the number of reported anti-Semitism in various forms decreased and today anti-Semitism has almost disappeared from public political discourse in government, including and the parliamentary tribune (where it was used very intensively for 5 years ago); however, the notion of Jews as a hostile force is strong enough among common Russians.

Thus there is a transition from the old Soviet “Anti-Zionists” stamps to modern conspiratorial anti-Semitism. While the first three places in the list of “enemies of Russia”, according to a survey by the “Levada Center,” were divided into the Chechen rebels (48%), USA (40%) and NATO (32%), Jews were also represented.

Interestingly, in this case we can speak of a strong passion for public conspiracy because the traditional “Zionists” scored only 8% of votes by respondents, against 20% of survey participants recognizing the enemies of the Russian people as “oligarchs, bankers’ (which for the modern anti-Semitism is often a euphemism for those who are hiding Jews all the same). Another 6% have declared “enemies” a certain “Russophobia” and 5% – Democratic reformers.

There are also some interesting data from a survey conducted in April 2011 by the Lipetsk Center for the Study of Public Opinion, according to which 12% of surveyed residents said they have a negative attitude toward the Jews (they took third place after Roma (39%) and Caucasians (24%).

However, it should be noted that Russian society is now more inclined to perceive the source of evil and anxiety not only from the Jews, but as well from people in the Caucasians, from Central Asia and the “third world”. This is indicated by the very same 28% of respondents who do not trust the Muslims out of the survey (even 3%, as we know from sociology, is the statistical error – comparable to the 25 percent level of confidence about the Jews). But on the basis of these figures, we can confidently say that we are talking about Islamophobia, and the dislike of immigrants at the same time, since most of the carriers of the Islamic faith in Russia are coming from the Caucasus region and Central Asia.

The Jewish community in Russia, of course, is not happy about the fact that we, the Jews, and are now liked by fewer people than the Muslims, Gypsies or people of other ethnic and religious minorities … But we do not tend to deceive ourselves, because we know that anti-Semitism in Russia remains an integral part of the worldview of radical nationalists, and is quite common in the popular consciousness as a whole and as such continues to manifest itself in many different spheres of public life as a both latent and explicit.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church and Society

We can rejoice that only 6% of the Orthodox do not trust each other

Commentary to the data: respondents who do not believe in God, most often do not trust Muslims, Jews and Orthodox.

 Non-believers, according to my feelings, are less inclined to philanthropy than believers. Many of the problems that surround us, they seem to be extremely difficult and are not solved, so that there is nothing surprising in this data that I can see.

Commentary to the data: 6% of the Orthodox said they did not trust the Orthodox.

 Differences within a given community are often more severe than between communities. There is even an anecdote, that ecumenism of Orthodox and of atheists is the easiest, Orthodox and Protestants, more difficult, Orthodox and Catholics even more difficult and the most difficult ecumenism – the Orthodox and the Orthodox, especially within the same parish. If you read the Orthodox blogosphere, all the accusations and curses which occur, we can only rejoice that only 6% of the Orthodox do not trust each other.