Muscovites to shun census

MOSCOW, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- At least 20 percent of Muscovites are expected to deny census takers access to their homes during Russia's first ever census that will begin on Wednesday.

The survey, conducted by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center in early October, polled 500 Muscovites, 78 percent of whom said they would not object to census takers coming to their homes. Two percent were undecided.

The Interfax news agency reported that among the 20 percent who said they would refuse to let the census workers into their homes, 13 percent argued they were ready to shout the data through a closed door or to come to a nearby census station.

The census aims to count Russia's shrinking population, which according to some projections, could drop by 25 million over the next 50 years.

On Monday, some 500,000 census takers will conclude several days of handing out pamphlets that provide basic information about the census.

Moreover, the Russian government has spent millions of rubles on a month long media campaign to reach out and convince citizens to overcome distrust and help census takers do their job.

However, more than seven decades of living in the totalitarian Soviet regime seem to have left an indelible mark in the minds of the Russian people as widespread suspicion to any government action involving private citizens still runs high.

Today, old fears have been replaced by new ones -- the population fears that supplied information may eventually be shared with security agencies, tax inspectors or even organized crime.

On Thursday, Russia's State Statistics Committee briefed the media on the situation on the eve of the census and said the committee was flooded with letters from angry residents who threatened to ignore the campaign, protesting recent hikes of transportation tariffs, increase of duty on imports of foreign-made used cars, as well as the parliament's vote to ban national referendums in the next two years.

At the same time, the government has trouble finding enough volunteers to work as census takers and many volunteers have already handed back their badges and resigned arguing the job was not safe, as in the cases when takers had to brave dogs that owners kept without leashes.