The paper focuses on perception of authorities and politics in Russia today in comparison with the previous period. It is based on empirical study, carried by the author, that included a survey, deep interviews and projective test in several Russian regions. It ananlyses cognitive, emotional and behavioral components of images of authorities in Russian citizens’. Together with questions concerning attitudes towards political system in general, particular political leaders and parties, we studied what were the attitudes toward values of democracy in Public opinion. Our results give evidence to the conclusion that these values changed a lot during post-Soviet period. Today the majority of respondents regard an ideal power as a democratic one There is of course some part of society that feels nostalgia for a “strong Hand” but this part is not as big as it is sometimes describe ( not more than 13%)/ At the same time respondents report that they feel deficit of such qualities of authorities as legitimacy, integrity and justice and responsibility. These qualities are mainly not political but moral ones. One of the main surprises of this study was the growth of demand for mass activity for citizens after a number of years of political demobilization . Our data show that in general there are not so many negative attitudes towards power and politicians but in that segment of society that is dissatisfied by them intensiveness of protest is pretty high. These conclusions that we have received in the end of November 2010 were supported by protests of football fans on December 11 that can be interpreted not in terms of growth of nationalist emotions but rather as emotional protest against social unjust ice and alienation of authorities from society.
