MOSCOW. Dec 22 (Interfax-AVN) - Most Russians regret the breakup of the former Soviet Union and think that it could have been avoided, a source at the Yuri Levada Analytical Center told Interfax.
The rate is 60%, and the decline has been minor over the past two years, the source said.
The call against the breakup of the former USSR reached its peak (75%) in December 2000.
The sections of Russian society who most regret the collapse of the former Soviet Union are pensioners (85%), women (63%), people aged between 40-55 (67%), those over 55 (83%), those with a low level of education (68%), those on low incomes (79%) and non-city dwellers (66%).
Fifty-seven percent believe that the breakup of the Union could have been avoided. The indicator varied from 55% in 2008 to 65% in 2003 and 2004.
Twenty-eight percent said that the breakup was inevitable. The indicator stood somewhere between 24-30% in previous years, the source said.
Sixteen percent of the respondents suggested restoring the Soviet Union (the figure was 13% a year ago), and thirteen percent favored preservation of the CIS. Fourteen percent insisted that all former Soviet republics must be independent.
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev stepped down on December 25, 1991. On that night the Soviet flag was replaced with the Russian tricolor on the Kremlin Palace's dome.