Only 28 percent of Russians have passports for foreign travel, and 60 percent have never been outside the former Soviet Union, a recent poll showed.
Conversely, 60 percent of Muscovites said they have such a passport, and a third of them said they travel abroad at least once a year, according to the survey, taken in late March and published Wednesday by the independent Levada Center pollster.
Respondent most likely to have never traveled outside the former Soviet Union were pensioners (69 percent), housewives and other homemakers (65 percent), blue-collar workers (74 percent) and the unemployed (77 percent).
Overall, only 4 percent said they travel abroad about once a year for business, and 7 percent — for recreation.
The survey, whose statistical margin of error did not exceed 3.4 percent, was conducted from March 21 to 24 among 1,603 respondents aged over 18 in 130 cities and towns across 45 Russian regions, its authors said in an online statement.
