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One in Five Russians Receiving Salary 'Off The Books' — Poll

More than one fifth of Russians still receive at least some of their salary “off the books,” according to a report by the state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) published on Thursday.

One in ten respondents said they received all of their wages unofficially, while 13 percent said that part of their salary was paid in cash.

The number of surreptitious payments has fallen since January 2015, when 29 percent of respondents admitted to accepting money unofficially.

Some 74 percent of respondents said that they now received all of their wages “on the books,” while 3 percent did not provide an answer.

The poll was carried out with 1,600 respondents between Dec. 24-25, 2016, in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5 percent.

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