Newspaper Readership
| Region | reads newspapers regularly % | % Russian mean |
| Central Black Earth | 82 | 123 |
| Far East | 72 | 109 |
| Central | 70 | 105 |
| Urals | 69 | 104 |
| Northern | 69 | 104 |
| North Caucasus | 68 | 102 |
| RUSSIAN MEAN | 67 | 100 |
| East Siberia | 65 | 98 |
| Volgo-Vyatka | 62 | 94 |
| West Siberia | 60 | 90 |
| Volga | 58 | 88 |
| North-west | 52 | 78 |
Source: VCIOM. Russian nationwide surveys, 1997.
In West European societies people have a choice of sources of information; they can choose from a variety of newspapers and television stations as well as relying on what they see for themselves and hear from trusted friends. In Soviet society, choice was limited by censorship. Yet notwithstanding this, two-thirds of Russians today read a newspaper regularly, often a regional or urban paper rather than a paper circulating nation-wide. Since there is now competition between papers, people have multiple sources of information about what is happening in national government.
Newspaper readership is highest in regions more distant from Moscow, such as the Central Black Earth region and the Far East. It is lowest in the North-west. In the Central region it is slightly above average.