“Immigrants from the former Soviet Union believe in strong leadership more than they believe in the democratic apparatus,” Remennick said. “The drunken democracy they experienced in the 1990s immediately after the dissolution of the Soviet Union was essentially chaos: there was no law and order, no work, and nothing to eat, which is why [Russian President] Vladimir Putin was able to rise to power and stay there for 20 years. People cling to the order and stability that a strong leader can provide.”

While the Russian sector traditionally tends to vote for right-wing parties, its overall voting patterns are relatively similar to those of the general Jewish sector.

8% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union voted for left-wing parties, compared to 14% of Israelis; 29% said they voted for centrist parties, compared to 26% of the Jewish population; and 54% of the immigrants voted for right-wing parties, in comparison to 55% of the native-born Jewish population.

The younger generation of Russian speakers in Israel “serve in the military. They work hard, they pay taxes and they carry all the other sectors that don’t pull their own weight.”

 

Header image: Israeli World War II veterans of the Allied armies of Russian origins take part in a parade marking the 71st anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, in Jerusalem, on May 8, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / GALI TIBBON)

An article by ‎IRA TOLCHIN IMMERGLUCK

Read full : Times of Israel