The figures come from an opinion probe the All-Russia Public Opinion Study Center, or VTsIOM, made March 26-27.
Respondents siding with the Communist, Liberal Democratic and Rodina (Motherland) political parties, as a rule, would not like to see their children among this country's foremost tycoons. As for the United Russia party electorate, there is an approximate equilibrium of opinions-42 per cent want their kids to get very rich, and 44 per cent don't.
39 per cent of respondents went really far. They said they had blushed for their country as they heard there were Russians on the Forbes list. 15 per cent confessed they envied those people, and another 15 per cent said it was merely a curious fact. 7 per cent took pride in their affluent compatriots. 24 per cent did not know what to say about Russia having so many super-rich people.
The young, in the 18-24 age bracket, proved the most tolerant. 28 per cent of these said they would like to get rich, 21 per cent said it was interesting information, 16 per cent felt proud of Russians' success, while a mere 13 per cent said it was shame to have so many moneybags in their country.
As for household names among the top rich, 34 per cent mentioned Roman Abramovich, Chukchi governor, 27 per cent controversial tycoon Boris Berezovsky, and 25 per cent Anatoli Chubais, president of the UES (United Russian Power Grid) electric monopoly. Some people think political celebrities are Russia's richest men. Thus, 3 per cent named Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first President. Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow mayor, scored a similar percentage. Victor Chernomyrdin, once Russia's Prime Minister and now Ambassador to Ukraine, made 7 percent.
The probe involved a hundred settlements in 40 of Russia's constituent entities-regions, territories and autonomous republics, with 1,600 respondents interviewed on a representative sampling. The statistical error kept within 3.4 per cent.
