August 06, 2003 Posted: 13:46 Moscow time (09:46 GMT) 

Photo:  Yuri Levada is a sociologist and the director of the All-Russian Center of Public Opinion Studies (TRJ)

MOSCOW - The government is stripping Russia's best known polling agency of its independence, depriving journalists, scholars and politicians of objective information on public opinion, the organization's director said Wednesday.

In a few weeks, the Russian Center for Public Opinion and Market Research, known by its Russian acronym VTsIOM, will have a new board of directors made up of government representatives, director Yuri Levada told The Associated Press.

"It will be a different organization," Levada said, adding that he believed the new board would completely change the company's management.

VTsIOM, founded at the end of the Soviet era, has always been a state-owned entity, but the government has never interfered with its work, Levada said. The agency receives no state funding, he added.

The government denies it is attempting to infringe on VTsIOM's independence and says the changes are routine.

But VTsIOM and its supporters say the government is using legal formalities to mask an attempt to get rid of an independent source of information about political ratings and attitudes to issues such as
the war in Chechnya.

VTSIOM is "independent of any pressure or influence," said Leonid Sedov, one of the center's top researchers. "This independence doesn't suit everybody."

Boris Nemtsov, a top liberal lawmaker, told the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta that VTsIOM's research "apparently really irritated the Kremlin."

Sedov likened the situation to recent closings and takeovers of non-state television stations. In those cases, many critics accused the government of using legal means to quiet opponents.

The Property Ministry, which is overseeing the changes, denied any political motives.

Spokesman Alexander Parshukov said the government is converting most of its 9,000 state-owned enterprises into joint-stock companies in which the state owns 100 percent of shares in an effort to make the companies more accountable and possibly open the door to future privatization.

He accused the VTsIOM management of fearing the board would uncover flawed business practices.

Parshukov said VTsIOM had no independence to lose, since under its current status it is formally subordinate to the Labor Ministry. The new board will include representatives of several ministries and the presidential administration.

Levada said he did not know what part of VTsIOM's research might have angered the government. The agency's polls consistently show wide approval for President Vladimir Putin - 78 percent in July. But they also show dissatisfaction with certain policies. For example, about two-thirds of Russians want the government to start peace talks to end the nearly four-year war in Chechnya, according to VTsIOM's
polls. The Kremlin has refused to negotiate with the rebel leaders. 

/The Associated Press/
 

Independent polster warns of the State takeover
  
CEIW 06 August 2003 02:35

VTsIOM Warns of a State Takeover

Leading independent pollster VTsIOM is under the threat of a government takeover aimed at least in part at silencing growing public opposition to the Chechen war in the election season, its director said Tuesday.

Yury Levada, who is regarded as the country's top sociologist, said his All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion is being reorganized into a joint-stock company and will get a board of government officials within two weeks. "Formally speaking, the procedure is impeccable. But in real terms this operation is scandalous, stupid, arrogant and dishonest," Levada said at a news conference.

"It means the destruction of VTsIOM, of its structure and of its activities." He warned that surveys released under VTsIOM's name in a month or two would have nothing to do with research carried out by his team. "The task of our persecutors is to stop VTsIOM from being VTsIOM and forcing the current administrators to leave," he said. VTsIOM, a state-owned agency that has operated independently for much of the past decade, is widely recognized as one of the most reputable national pollsters.

Founded more than 15 years ago during perestroika, it has been credited with providing some of the most accurate and reliable surveys on a range of political, economic and social issues, including a monthly poll on Chechnya.

Levada said that until now he and his team have never had a problem with VTsIOM's status as a state organization, even though they have not received any government funding for years and had to rely on
revenues generated from "commercial research orders."

"It appears that VTsIOM is being reorganized into a joint-stock company but somehow behind our backs, without us," Levada said. He said the new board, which will decide what surveys to carry out, will
include officials from the Property and Labor ministries and the presidential administration.

None of VTsIOM's researchers or executives has been asked to join the new board. Levada said VTSiOM's troubles started about six months ago when he learned that the Property Ministry had decided to change the agency's status. He said he was told at the time that the changes were a mere formality. But after a while his suspicions were raised.

Levada said he has held talks with dozens of Property Ministry officials over the past half-year and believes the original order came from higher up. Property Ministry spokesman Alexander Parshukov
refused to comment about VTsIOM on Tuesday.

Levada said the powers-that-be might be displeased with VTsIOM's polls on Chechnya, which he called "unpleasant reading for people wanting to continue the war." "A majority of the population believes the war must be stopped. In our July survey, even those who see the Chechen rebels as international terrorists, even those who support the president, want the war to end," he said. The survey, which was released Tuesday, found that support for the war had fallen to 28 percent, while 57 percent favored a negotiated settlement with the rebels. VTsIOM polled 1,585 people in 40 regions.

Levada said the government had no reason to be upset about VTsIOM's polls on President Vladimir Putin and the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, which are showing strong public support for both. He said, however, that some politicians have accused VTsIOM of purposely releasing low numbers with the intention of sabotaging their parties' election chances.

"Those people don't seem to understand that our capital is our own reputation," he said. "We are not answerable to anyone, but we have never been told to be answerable." But with State Duma elections in December and the presidential vote next March, there are "people who would like a clearout of the informational fields," he said.

Levada added that in 15 years VTsIOM has never received an official letter of disapproval or complaint over its work. Ruslan Gorevoi of the Glasnost Defense Foundation, a press freedom group, said he was keeping a close eye on the developments at VTsIOM.

"I would like to believe that this is just a formality, although I do not think that any reorganization is necessary," Gorevoi said. "With its current status, VTsIOM is the only truly independent organization that provides quality sociological research.