John Brown I've never believed in "polls," no matter in what country (we all know Gertrude Stein's reputed quip http://www.bartleby.com/73/989.html (I paraphrase), when asked, "What is the answer?" to which which she responded, "In that case, what is the question." ) The results of "polls" are especially dubious in Eastern Europe, including in Poland , given the tragic past of these countries, where expressing your opinion publicly could mean causa finita est. So if, in today's Russia, you're a publicly patriotic grazhdanin (citizen), what else would you say -- remembering "what happened " to those who have "spoken out" -- to a poll question (even in a "controlled environment) about VVP, other than the harmless answer, that "nash" (our) president is "odin iz nashikh" (one of ours); I don't know the actual poll questions. When, as a friend who lived in Russia for many years liked to say, there is a moment of silence during a conversation at a social gathering, in France it is interrupted by the words, "c'est un ange qui passe"; in Russia --by the frightened look on faces -- that "there's a policeman downstairs."
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Additional comment: Of course, times have changed, the Russian Federation (soon to be reputinated as the Russian Empire?) is -- slava Bogu -- not the CCCP.
But I'm willing to bet -- despite my absence, for over a decade, from a country whose people and culture I much admire [quite frankly, I can't afford Moscow prices in order to travel there any more] -- that the "fear" (STRAKH) quotient is still part of the national mentality (granted, whatever such a mentality is).
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