The average Russian family lives on their salaries and pensions and only takes loans in exceptional cases. The vast majority of Russians are in fact millionaires, since almost every family owns their residence, while a third of all households also own other property, usually a 'dacha', i.e. a summer house. Thus, the combined value of assets owned by a typical Russian family exceeds that of many Europeans, according to the Russian Survey of Consumer Finance

Almost two-thirds of Russians use financial services. With this, however, the public’s level of financial literacy is low overall, and there is no convincing evidence that people are interested in improving this. This is largely due to the fact that the information presently available on financial services is complex and difficult to understand, according to experts tasked by the Russian Finance Ministry to conduct the first base survey on the financial literacy level and competence of the Russian public

Muscovites who live between the capital’s Ring Road and the Third Ring Road are rooted in their region and, contrary to popular myths, do not try to move into the city centre. In their view, ‘Old Moscow’ is more a territory for rest than a business and residential area. This stereotype is also supported by Moscow’s radial ring structure, which is designed to regulate the influx of people into the city centre, Alexey Levinson said in HSE’s ‘Demoscope Weekly’ journal

Poverty in Russia is not limited to marginalized, unemployed people with little or no income; poverty is widespread when defined as deprivation due to illness, homelessness, and other similar factors. Single pensioners and families with many children living in rural areas are particularly at risk of poverty, notes Ekaterina Slobodenyuk, lecturer at the Subdepartment of Socio-Economic Systems and Social Policy of the HSE's Department of Applied Economics, in her paper 'Social Dynamics in the Group of the Russian Poor'

A drop in the public’s wages in September was accompanied by a growth in demand for durable goods. People tried to use this method to protect their savings from inflation. In addition, hopes for economic growth are becoming more and more illusory, as the main macroeconomic indicators are currently on the decline, experts from HSE's Centre of Development Institute said in the latest edition of New Comments on the State and Business

Modern slaves are not physically shackled, and their captors do not look like slave traders. It is not easy to detect criminals involved in human trafficking. An international team including researchers of the HSE's Department of Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence have been helping police develop a methodology for combating human trafficking. Their software, based on formal concept analysis, helps process numerous police reports and identify potential suspects and criminal networks

Extracurricular activities continue to be popular among Russian youngsters, and most school students attend after-school clubs and classes, including those offered by their own school. Youngsters who are not involved in any after-school activities explain it by not having enough time or not having access to out-of-school programmes which are either non-existent in their community or out of their price range. These are some of the findings of a study by Daniil Alexandrov, Head of the HSE's Research Laboratory of Sociology in Education and Science (St. Petersburg), and Valeria Ivaniushina, Senior Research Fellow of the same Laboratory

Integrating Russia’s academic community into the larger international community, internationalizing Russian academic journals, and improving the quality of publications and research – these are the ultimate priorities of a new project the HSE is participating in called the Russian Science Citation Index. The project is being carried out on Web of Science, a leading global search engine for academic publications. By the end of next year, a national database is to be created that comprises the best Russian journals and publications from the last ten years. The database will undoubtedly become a part of the international publication space

Twenty-five million Russians would be prepared to move from cities to the countryside if offered the same living standards in terms of income and available infrastructure. While these conditions cannot be met in Russia at the moment, it is still possible for the government to take steps to encourage urban dwellers to move to rural communities, according to the study Motives, Conditions and Consequences of Migration from the Cities to the Countryside in Russia by Maria Neuvazhaeva, Masters' graduate of the HSE's Faculty of Sociology

Migrant workers in the CIS are vulnerable in terms of pension rights. The recipient country does not expect to care for them in old age, while the country of origin does not count the years worked abroad towards their retirement plan. Portable pensions may offer a solution, according to researchers of the HSE's Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (St. Petersburg) involved in the study Pension Mobility within the Eurasian Economic Union and the CIS

Sanctions and the decline of the ruble have caused inflation rates in Russia to exceed the Ministry of Economic Development's official projection and to hit a three-year maximum. Furter weakening of the ruble will lead to the continued growth of annual inflation, according to the HSE's New Comments on the State and Business

Most Russians are confident that they only consume legally-produced spirits. The proportion of Russians who consciously purchase counterfeit or bootleg liquor remains relatively small. However, the percentage of those who are either unsure that their drink is the genuine article, or who don't care whether it's fake or genuine, is relatively high. This is what Senior Research Fellow at the HSE's Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology Zoya Kotelnikova found