Over half of Russians expect a second wave of economic crisis to hit in the near future, according to a survey by an independent Russian pollster Romir.
About 56 percent of respondents said they expected a second wave of the global financial crisis, while only 13 percent said it was unlikely and 31 percent were undecided.
The survey revealed that gender, education or income have no influence on expectations of a new crisis.
Geographical origin does play a role, however, with people from small towns and villages being more pessimistic than urban Russians, while optimists in large cities outnumber pessimists by ten times.
The majority of Russians believe the crisis, if it occurs, will most likely lead to inflation (23 percent) and affect living standards in general (28 percent), but few expect unemployment (4 percent) or wage cuts (6 percent).
Russians are generally now more optimistic and calm about the future, Romir experts said, than respondents of previous polls.
“It appears that Russians treat the coming crisis like in the ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’ fable. In the fourth year of hearing rumors about a crisis which doesn’t really occur, their vigilance and foresight tend to weaken,” the survey says.
The survey involved 1,500 respondents, aged from 18 to 60 living in all Russian federal districts.
