Levada Center: Majority of Russians Believe YUKOS Affair Initiated by Those Seizing Property
The Levada Opinion Center, a leading non-governmental Russian polling and sociological research organization, has been tracking the public interest in the YUKOS Affair in Russia since 2003.
Lev Gudkov, Levada's director, added that 65% of people following the YUKOS case do not believe the recent statements that the Russian government used YUKOS' money to resolve the country's housing situation. He said that the majority believe that the case was initiated by those responsible for seizing Khodorkovsky's property.
Alexey Grazhdankin, Levada's deputy director, believes that Khodorkovsky's popularity is due to the fact that he represents an alternative way for Russian development. He said: "Khodorkovsky is a symbol of another choice for Russia."
Also announced this week, Moscow-based media analysis firm Medialogia found that for the past seven years Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been mentioned more than 122,066 times in the Russian media.
The mentions make up 0.31% of the total information stream, compared to 3.6% generated by media hits mentioning Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.