History

Until 1992, the Public Opinion Foundation was part of All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTSIOM). It has been a completely self-sufficient organization since mid-1992, and launched its comprehensive research program as an independent non-profit organization.

In 1996, POF was the election headquarters of Boris Yeltsin's basic public opinion center. Since then, the presidential administration has been one of the major clients for POF's public opinion surveys, which serve as a sort of feedback between the country's leadership and people. In 1999-2000, POF was one of the leading opinion agencies that provided polling support to Vladimir Putin's election headquarters.

POF has a wealth of experience in the field of political research, having been involved with most of the election campaigns in contemporary Russia, such as the 1995 parliamentary campaign, the 1996-2000 presidential campaigns, as well as a series of regional election campaigns between 1996-2000.

In addition to the population at large, POF surveys target groups and executives from various firms and organizations.

Apart from the presidential administration, POF's largest clients include the Russian government, the Central Bank of Russia, MOST-Bank, GAZPROM, VAZ, VGTRK, NTV, NTV+, YUKOS, Interros, VIDEO INTERNATIONAL, INTERFAX, RIA Vesti, the Russian Marketing Association, and dozens of other Russian government, commercial, financial, advertising, and news organizations.

POF gained international prominence while working for USIA, ROPER, BBC, Stanford University, the Eurasia Foundation, and foreign embassies in Russia.

POF's profile

Our main activities inclued developing and carrying out sociological research, sociological analysis, publishing news and analytical reports (both printed and Internet versions), publications in the media, and book publishing.
Applied technologies include representative polls of the population and target groups, experts polls, in-depth interviewing, focus groups, statistical analysis and sociological analysis of the poll findings.
Our goal: studying mass and narrow social groups to determine subjective perceptions of the structure, events and phenomena of the "everyday world" (conventional perceptions) and the "external world" (conceptual perceptions).
The research area: subjective perceptions of socially relevant issues (public opinion), politics, mass media, economics, consumption, culture and daily life.

Products

Custom and subscription research, implementation of our own projects, dissimenation of informational products.
Types of surveys: public opinion monitoring, thematic research, sociological support of election campaigns and major social projects..
Informational products: a weekly report "Dominants. Opinion Field," "news hotline", FOM-Info bulletin, and the website.english.fom.ru

Organization

Established as a non-profit organization in 1991 and re-registered under the Law on Non-Profit Organizations in 1998.
Legal status: NPO "all-Russian Fund."
Staff: about 80 employees (main office), 500 employees at the regional offices, about 1500 interviewers.
POF's regional network is based on its own branches and long-term partner organizations in most Russian regions.

Executive Officers

President: Alexander A. Oslon
Research Director: Elena S. Petrenko
Production Director: Alexei V. Churikov
Finance Director: Marianna A. Kononova