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DRUGS AND CRIME BIGGEST RUSSIAN CONCERNS

MOSCOW, January 27 (RIA Novosti's Nikolai Zherebtsov) - Drugs and crime are the most alarming of global problems, say 54% and 50% of Russians, respectively.

The figures come from an opinion probe by the ROMIR Monitoring-independent Russian service for public opinion and market studies. The representative poll involved 1,600 respondents in a hundred urban and rural settlements in all parts of Russia.

The sum total exceeds 100 per cent as every respondent could use up several options to answer a questionnaire item.

International terrorism (49%), poverty (37%) and environment pollution (23%) are also on the top five most alarming problems.

Next come inadequate medical assistance (17%), interstate conflicts and wars (15%), famine (9%), nuclear arms proliferation (8%) and religious strife (5%).

Drugs are the worst cause for alarm in the Russian Far East (63%), and rampant crime in European Russia's south (58%). The Northwest is most concerned about international terrorism (59%), Siberia about poverty (44%), and the same Northwest about environment pollution (34%).

Characteristically, respondents who describe their incomes as high are the worst alarmed with the drug problem (62%) and terrorism (53%), while middling income people pay the greatest attention to rising crime rates (53%). Low-income people concentrate on poverty (49%), as can only be expected.