75% of respondents know about the explosion in a St. Petersburg cafe, which killed war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky. Most of the respondents believe that Ukrainian special services, Ukrainian nationalists or Western special services are behind this. At the same time, Tatarsky’s murder did not lead to a surge of fears among respondents to be a victim of terrorist attacks themselves.
Three-quarters of respondents know about the explosion in St. Petersburg, which killed military commander Vladlen Tatarsky: 24% of respondents closely followed this story, slightly more than half (52%) have heard something about it. A quarter did not know about this incident.
Respondents 55 years and older (87%) are the most aware of the explosion, as well as those who trust TV and Telegram channels as the main sources of information (79%). The respondents aged 18-24 (54%) and those who do not trust any sources of information (70%) are less familiar with this situation than the rest.
I follow the events closely; I have heard about it; I’m hearing it for the first time; Can’t say
Opinions prevail among all respondents that this explosion was organized by the Ukrainian special services (37%), Ukrainian nationalists (25%), Western special services (15%). At the same time, about a third (31%) of respondents do not have a point of view on this issue, and first of all those who did not know about the incident (59%).
Respondents 55 years and older (46%) and those who closely followed the development of events (60%) are the most confident that this explosion was organized by the Ukrainian special services.
At the same time, Tatarsky’s murder did not lead to a surge of fears among respondents to be a victim of terrorist attacks themselves. Compared to 2017, when almost 80% were afraid of becoming a victim of terrorist attacks against the background of explosions in the subway in St. Petersburg, the share of respondents who fear this today has decreased to 55%. Thus, 16% of respondents are very afraid of being victims of a terrorist attack (as in 2017), 39% are somewhat afraid (in 2017 – 50%). The share of those who did not think about it or are sure that this will not happen to them or their loved ones was 43% (in 2017 – 31%).
Most of those who fear falling victim to terrorist attacks are represented among residents of cities with a population of more than 500 thousand people (57%): 15% of them are very afraid, 42% are somewhat afraid. At the same time, those who are very afraid are most represented among residents of cities with a population of up to 100 thousand people – 21%.
METHODOLOGY
The survey by the Levada Center was conducted October 20 – 26 2023, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample consisted of 1623 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The distribution of responses is given as a percentage of the total number of respondents.
The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for indicators around 50%
2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%
2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%
1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%
The ANO Levada Center is included in the registry of non-commercial organizations acting as foreign agents.