The perils of Moscow’s middle-class

at 26/03/2009 23:09

By Nathan Toohey

Russia's middle class has suffered most of all as a result of the financial crisis, sociologists said last week.

"All of our quickly-developed middle class is adapting badly," said the general director of the All-Russian Public Opinion Studies Centre, Valery Fyodorov. "They have had a very large breach formed between their expectations and the increasingly worsening reality, they have a badly formed strategy in minimising their risks and lowering their expenditures." He added that the middle class was fairly quickly running through its savings, "because most of all the middle class does not live within its means", RIA Novosti reported.

Lev Gudkov, director of the Yury Levada Analytical Centre, agreed.

"Judging by February's indications, the groups most of all concerned by the crisis are those that won from the previous changes, those that you could call the middle class," said Gudkov. "That is roughly 15 per cent of the population - the relatively well-off and educated," he said.

He added that on the whole in February the middle class's behaviour started to change, with a reduction in spending on large purchases and an increase in saving.

Roughly one-third of Russians said that their material well being would not change over the upcoming year, while roughly the same number foresaw their wellbeing falling, according to a study conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Studies Centre. Most pessimistic of all were residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg, people over 45 years of age and those with high school and trade educations. The most commonly optimistic were residents of medium-sized towns, people younger than 34 years of age and those with higher and incomplete higher education. Entrepreneurs and businessmen were the biggest optimists, with 36 per cent sure that their material well being would not change for the worse in the upcoming year.

Meanwhile, Fyodorov said that Russians considered themselves to have fared worst in the world from the financial crisis. "Currently 47 per cent of those polled - that is the largest share - consider that Russia has suffered worst of all from the world crisis," said Fyodorov.