Consider the following statement: “The world is run by some sort of overarching entity that pulls the strings in governments around the globe.”

While groups like NATO, the United Nations and the G20 all include some of the biggest and most influential nations in the world, most people would probably say that the statement above is a bit of a stretch.

Unless, of course, you live in Russia.

A recent poll carried out by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center found that a whopping 45% of Russians agreed with the statement about a global shadow government. Only a third directly rejected the statement, with 23% undecided.

In another interesting finding, the poll revealed that people with more education and wealth were actually more likely to believe in the shadow government theory than poorer or less-educated people.

But when people who believe in a shadow government were asked who they thought made it up, most people were unsure. 22% believe its composed of rich businessmen and oligarchs and 6% believe it’s run by the U.S., but more than half of them couldn’t identify who or what made up the clandestine organization.

People who said they believed in a shadow government were also asked what they thought its goals were.

48% of people were unsure of its motives, with 32% believing the goal is world domination and 10% believing the goal is to enrich a very small group of people.

The survey, which was conducted late last month, polled 1,400 Russian citizens across 14 different Russian regions.

Read the original story from The Moscow Times here.