A review of the theoretical and empirical literature on social support theory and an appraisal of the Russian socioeconomic situation led to the construction of two hypotheses for the study: The regional level of social support is negatively associated with the variation in regional homicide rates; and the regional level of social support will moderate the effect of negative socioeconomic change on regional homicide rates. The dependent variable was the regional age-standardized homicide victimization rate in 2000. Social support was measured with two variables: the proportion of the regional budget spent on education and the proportion of the regional budget spent on health care. These data were obtained from the Russian Ministry of Finance (2004). Neither hypothesis was supported. Although negative socioeconomic change was associated with higher homicide rates, there was no support for a direct or conditioning effect of social support on homicide. These findings suggest that the negative effects of social, political, and economic change on violence in Russia are overwhelming the moderating effects on violence by social institutions such as family, education, and government social services. 2 tables, 4 notes, and 68 references