One in four Russians believes the sun rotates around the Earth, the head of Russia's state-backed pollster has revealed.
Valery Fyodorov, general director of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), admitted that he was “surprised” by the findings— but said that sociologists consistently found large numbers of people rejecting scientific fact.
“A quarter of Russians believe the Earth doesn't revolve around the Sun, but that the Sun spins around the Earth. And this is a sociological trend which has been established, rechecked and reaffirmed,” Fedorov told Russian tabloid Izvestia.
Fedorov also revealed that 90 percent of VTsIOM polls were never published. He said that most of the state-run company's surveys were commissioned, and that the remaining 10 percent were “enough” to build a full picture of the Russian mood.
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