MOSCOW, August 30 (RIA Novosti) - About two thirds of Russians (65%) do not believe the authorities are able to protect them from terrorist attacks, whereas 30% trust the government to protect them, according to a recent survey conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM).

These figures are more positive than those (71% and 21% respectively) from December 2002, a month after the Moscow theater hostage crisis in the Dubrovka area. Moreover, these results are similar to public opinion figures from the majority of developed European countries, where 58% said they thought their government was not able to protect them from new terrorist attacks and only 34% said trusted their governments to protect them.

When asked whether terrorism was religiously motivated, 39% of respondents said terrorists used religion as an umbrella, whereas 25% saw links between terrorism and fanatical religious zeal regardless of what kind of religion. Twenty-eight percent of those polled saw direct links between terrorism and Islam, and of those, 12% link terrorism with Islam in general and 16% with orthodox Islamic groups.

The survey was conducted on August 20-21 and included 1,600 people from 153 settlements and cities in 46 regions, territories, and republics of Russia. The margin of error did not exceed 3.4%.