MOSCOW, June 27 (UPI) -- A Russian pollster said research indicates 65 percent of Russians believe the government is mismanaging money ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The Levada Center said its poll of 1,601 Russians found 65 percent of respondents described the government's spending on the Sochi Olympics as "ineffective," "completely ineffective" or "simply being stolen," RIA Novosti reported Thursday.
The pollster said only 2 percent of those polled called the spending "very effective" and 20 percent labeled it "fairly effective."
The Russian federal government is expecting to spend $21 billion on the Olympics, with the rest of the total $46 billion budget coming from state-run companies and other sources.
The poll had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.
