Poll: Over half Ukrainians don't mind red flags hanging on administrative buildings on Victory Day

Kyiv, April 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – More than half of Ukrainians support the idea of hanging the red flag of the Soviet Union beside the national flag of Ukraine on Victory Day on May 9.

According to a poll by the Rating Sociological Group presented at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday by the director of the group, Oleksiy Antypovych, 55% of those polled supported the idea of raising the flag of the Soviet Union on May 9. While one third of the respondents were against the proposal, and 15% did not answer the question.

Southern regions of Ukraine (86%) and the Donbas area (75%) expressed the most positive opinion on the issue. In these regions people also regret the collapse of the Soviet Union most of all.

As for political preferences of the supporters of the idea of raising the red flags, they include 90% of supporters of the Communist Party and 75% of supporters of the Regions Party. None of respondents who support the Svoboda Association voted for this proposal.

According to Antypovych, most of the respondents that supported the idea were people from the older generations, while young people, in contrast, were largely against the idea.

As for the question of declaring Russian the second state language, 44% of those polled support this idea. The number of supporters of the idea of making Russian the second state language fell in 2011, down from 46-47% in 2010 and over 50% in 2009.

The poll was conducted from March 30 to April 9, 2011. Some 2,000 respondents aged over 18 years old from all regions of Ukraine, Crimea, Kyiv, and Sevastopol participated in the research. The poll's margin of error does not exceed 2.2%.