The fear of terrorist attacks
After the explosion in St. Petersburg metro 84% of Russians feel anxiety about the possibility of new terrorist attacks in Russia. Not worried about this, only 14% of Russians, the rest were undecided, follows from a new poll by the Levada center (available). The study was conducted April 7-10 among 1.6 thousand people in 48 regions of the country.
The terrorist attack in the subway of Saint-Petersburg took place on 3 April. According to investigators, 22-year-old suicide bomber About Jalilov detonated an improvised explosive device in the train on the stretch between the stations “Institute of Technology” and “Sennaya Ploschad”. The result was 15 people dead, including an alleged terrorist. Jalilov, who was born in Kyrgyzstan, had a Russian citizenship. During a search in his apartment were found the materials, which, presumably, could be used to make bombs.
In 2015, following the terrorist attacks in France and likelihood of such attacks in Russia is concerned, 82% of Russians. Two years ago, November 13, 2015, a group of militants carried out several attacks in Paris and its suburbs. The terrorists almost simultaneously staged explosions near the stadium “Stade de France”, shot visitors several restaurants and attacked the Bataclan concert hall. The victims then were 130 people.
Last year after a series of attacks in Brussels (terrorists staged bombings at the airport and the metro, whose victims were more than 30 people) that terrorist attacks may be in Russia, experienced a 67% of Russians.
The fact that the number concerned about possible attacks of the Russians in the past two years was less due to the distance to the scene of the tragedy, said the Deputy Director of the Levada center Alexei Grazhdankin. “Brussels and Paris is far from us. When the terrorist attacks happen in Russian cities, the resonance of a far more serious,” he explained.
About 80% of Russians believe that the attack could happen at any moment. Last year I thought so a little more than 60% of the respondents. Nothing unusual in the fear of the majority of Russians before the terrorist attacks there, says analyst Abbas Gallyamov. “Death, which threatens out of nowhere, evokes extremely strong emotions. To get used to it it is impossible, he says. Even in countries such as Israel, which for decades living in a state of permanent threats of terrorism, each new major terrorist attack leads to increased anxiety levels and pushes all other issues to the periphery of public attention”.
The search for the culprit
On the question of sociologists, who organized the recent bombings in St. Petersburg metro, 45% of Russians said “Islamic extremists”. “International terrorists” accused of organizing the terrorist attack 30% of Russians, while 16% suspect the “external enemies of Russia.” The fourth most popular answer — the Ukrainian security services (9%). Another 3% of Russians believe that the bombings in the St. Petersburg metro are Russian special services.
“The results of coding the open-ended question, we did not call answers, said Grazhdankin. These answers reflect the confusion of the Russians. It’s his tangle of fears, which we try to analyze”.
The theory about the involvement of Russian special services in the terrorist acts over the years, becoming less popular, the noted sociologist. He recalled that this opinion was “in demand” in the early 2000-ies when the former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko for the first time put forward the version that occurred in 1999 a series of terrorist attacks inspired by the Russian special services in order to expand the political course of the country and to bring to power of Vladimir Putin.
The security forces will not protect
Almost 40% of Russians today believe that the security services and the interior Ministry can’t protect the population from new terrorist attacks. This is 12% less than last year, follows from the data of a sociological survey of the Levada center.
A high degree of distrust of the intelligence is related to their closeness and weak degree of the participation of the society, said the General-the major of FSB in the reserve Alexander Mikhailov. In his opinion, on the one hand, the Russians treat the news about the terrorist attacks and the capture of leaders of terrorists where the security forces themselves “not promoted” for granted. On the other hand, the degree of distrust of the secret services always grows after the attacks occurred, said Mikhailov.
The pessimism of the Russians from tragedy to tragedy increases. Today about half of the respondents believe that the attacks, in principle, impossible to prevent, while in 2011, so thought of just 22%.
