Most Russians are following the events in Ukraine, and nearly half of

them are sure that the recent protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian

cities have been influenced by the West, as is seen from a public

opinion poll of 1,603 people the Levada Center sociological service

conducted in 130 populated areas of 45 regions of Russia on Feb.

21-25.

The poll showed that 57 percent of Russians are closely following the

ongoing events in Ukraine, 31 percent know about these events but are not

following them very closely, 9 percent do not care about the protests, and 4 percent

have not heard anything about them.