The number of people constituting the Russian middle class will be reduced by a quarter by the end of 2015 because of the crisis – this makes up 15 percent of the total population of the country.

      This was written by “Kommersant” on Monday, December 7, with the reference to the results of the study conducted by the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting (InSAF) of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA). The proportion of Russians who belonged to the middle class has not grown over the past 15 years, it made up 20 percent all the time, according to the study with such authors as the Director of RANEPA Tatyana Maleva, as well as Leading and Senior Specialists of InSAF Alla Tyndik and Aleksxandr Burdyak.

      According to them, the category with a middle level of income included people whose income was not below the average wage in the region, those whose savings were sufficient to purchase a car, those who had higher education, belonged to the group of professionals or entrepreneurs and had a fairly high assessment of the situation in terms of wealth, power and respect.