Analysts were not surprised to hear that the presidential elections and the formation of a new cabinet of ministers were seen as the biggest events of the past year. The people of any nation tend to focus on domestic developments. “Self comes first,” said the Survey Center’s communications director Olga Kamenchuk.

In her view, domestic developments are put on top of the list anywhere on this planet – not only in Russia. It is only natural for the Russians to focus on the formation of a new cabinet and the changes of the post-electoral period. Much has changed: another cabinet has been formed and the winner of the presidential race has been sworn in as the new President of Russia. The conflict in the South Caucasus is also seen as one of the most important events of the past year. It has dominated the news reels for several months in a row. The day-in-day-out coverage in the media had to leave an imprint on the people’s minds.

But the biggest global development of the outgoing year – the financial crisis – has yet to leave its imprint on day-to-day developments in Russia. Although it was as early as last summer, if not last spring, that other countries – first of all, the United States of America and the European democracies – came to face financial problems, Olga Kamenchuk said that it was a different story with Russia. It is much later that Russia came to face the crisis. Because they hold no stock, most Russians were unaffected by developments on the stock market for a while. They feel those sorts of developments have little to do with their lives. What worries rank-and-file Russians is the situation in the tangible sectors of the economy. It was not until two or three months ago that the biggest cities of Russia had woken up to the crisis. The layoffs, the wage cuts, and the retail price hikes of the past few weeks indicate that the crisis has swept Russia.

That is why, Kamenchuk says, the financial crisis occupies one of the highest positions – although not the highest position – on the Survey Center’s list of the landmark events of the outgoing year.

The Survey Center’s poll proves that although the number of dissatisfied people has grown, most of the Russians take a positive view of the past year. Still, fewer Russians take an optimistic view of the year to come. As many as 75 percent of Russian people expected 2008 to be a good and successful one twelve months ago, but less than half of the recently-polled people in Russia pin hope on 2009.