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FIRST-EVER POLL OF LIFE IN MOSCOW

Foreigners rate Yeltsin high, health care low

By Carla Marinucci
October 3, 1991

The KGB is doing a pretty good job, the Metro is fantastic - but finding office space is horrendous, and medical care is so bad it's better to seek treatment outside the country.

Those are some of the surprising conclusions about doing business and living in the Soviet capital, as revealed in the Moscow Poll, the first scientific consumer survey ever taken in the Soviet Union.

The poll of 609 members of the influential community of foreign business people, diplomats and journalists in the Soviet Union was undertaken by the San Francisco-based PBN Co., a marketing and public relations firm, and GLS Research in the two weeks after the August coup attempt. It was released this week, giving what might be the first detailed insights into the difficulties of the rapidly changing political and business environment of the Soviet Union and the "guarded optimism" about the future, said GLS President Gary Steiger.

The survey is significant because it is "the first and only scientific poll conducted, not only of the foreign community, but of any community in the Soviet Union," said PBN President Peter Necarsulmer, in a telephone interview with Steiger from Moscow. The complete detailed data compiled will be distributed to Soviet government officials and sold to companies seeking more information on the Soviet market.

The survey could open the way for more attempts at gaining detailed marketing and consumer information in the U.S.S.R., particularly now, as companies are trying to assess the post-coup environment, Necarsulmer said.

Among the findings:

• Almost two out of three of the respondents ranked Moscow below average as a place to live and to vacation. Half considered it below average as a place to raise children, and an equal number said it was below average as a place to be single.

• Getting retail office space was ranked as the single hardest thing about doing business in the Soviet Union; almost equally annoying was finding commercial office space, and getting banking services, respondents said.

• The Moscow Metro was rated as the top service in the city; Aeroflot, the Soviet airline, and Moscow taxis were ranked at the bottom.

• 64 percent said medical service in Moscow was so bad they would seek treatment in another country-even for an illness or injury that wasn't life threatening.

• The availability of cultural entertainment was ranked as the best thing about living in Moscow; the phone services were ranked as the worst.

• Poor street and road conditions, alcoholism and air pollution were the biggest visible problems in Moscow, respondents said. Homelessness and street harassment were considered only the most minor problems in Moscow.

• Boris Yeltsin's office got the highest job performance ranking, 3.9 on a scale of 5. Lowest ranking went to the Communist Party, at 1.8. The KGB got a 2.7, or above average ranking.

• Almost two-thirds believe the failed coup would "greatly speed" reforms in the Soviet Union; but 64 percent believed there would be very serious food shortages this winter.

• 40 percent did not believe Mikhail Gorbachev could be re-elected, and half said they did not expect financial help from the West.

Respondents said they saw a marked difference in the quality of life in Moscow for foreigners and Soviet citizens. One-third said it had gotten better for foreigners in the last year; but 71 percent life has become worse for the average Soviet citizen. Still, nearly half said they expected a better future in the Soviet Union.

Necarsulmer says the rather drab picture of business life in the Soviet Union "certainly presents major obstacles" for firms considering making a move to the Soviet market. Yet, he says, many respondents expressed hope in business climates, and politics, following the failed coup attempt.

"Those (companies) blazing the trail are being very flexible and manage to survive," he said. But unless the Soviet government moves to improve conditions for business people, "unless the basic issues are addressed," Necarsulmer added, there will be an inclination to sit back and see before future investments are made.