MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - A total of 54% of Russian citizens prefer that their close ones do shorter draft service (one year) than two years of contract service (31%), sociologists of the Levada Center told Interfax citing the poll held on January 27 among 1,603 respondents in 45 regions.
According to the survey conducted, 15% of Russians failed to answer which service is better.
Meanwhile, 48% of Russians would prefer that their close one or a relative that is eligible for the draft goes to the army and 33% would look for a way to avoid the army service (against 46% in favor of army service and 36% opposed in 2012), the poll showed.
At the same time, 48% of respondents said they supported switching to forming the army on contracts of those willing to do service for money, 40% of Russians said they were in favor of keeping general military obligations and compulsory army service, and 12% failed to respond.
Sixty-one percent of Russian citizens are confident in the Russian army's ability to defend the country, 24% share the opposite stance, and 15% failed to answer, the survey showed.
According to the poll, 56% of Russians think that a military threat to Russia exists now, 32% see no threat, and 12% of respondents failed to respond.