One third of Russians call events in Ukraine state coup, civil war, anarchy — poll

Russians use such words as “an anarchy, a state coup and unlawfulness” to define the events in Ukraine, according to an opinion poll made public by the All-Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsiOM) on Friday.

The opinion poll was conducted on February 22-23 and involved 1,600 people. Statistical discrepancy does not exceed 3.4 percent.

The opinion poll shows that about two thirds of Russians (74%) follow the events in Ukraine. Residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg (84%) and people aged of 60 years and over (83%) closely follow the situation in Ukraine.

One fourth of respondents (25%) believe that a state coup was committed in Ukraine and power had been seized by force, 29% of respondents called the situation “anarchy, unlawfulness and banditry”, 27% say a civil war was unleashed in Ukraine.
However, half of Russian respondents say they “do not sympathise with any party involved in the political conflict”, 33% back Ukraine’s power led by ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and only 8% support the opposition.