RUSSIANS SEE BEST FRIENDS, ARCH FOES AMONG FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS
Lyudmila Alexandrova
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
June 1, 2007 Friday 10:52 AM EST
As before, most Russians see their arch foes – and bosom friends
likewise – among the former Soviet republics.
In their eyes Russia’s worst enemy these days is Estonia, and the
best friend, Kazakhstan.
In the group of non-CIS countries Germany firmly holds first place as
to the percentage of Russians who say it is the friendliest country
of all.
In an opinion poll of 1,600 by the Yuri Levada Center of Analysis
held on May 11-14, 60 percent pointed to Estonia as Russia’s worst
enemy. In this sense Estonia this year has outdone Latvia (36 percent).
NEWSru.com recalls that in 2006 a tiny 28 percent of the polled
Russians said Estonia was an unfriendly country.
Relations between Russia and Estonia turned from bad to worse after
the Estonian authorities late last April, acting in defiance of
protests from Moscow and from many Estonian citizens, too, dismantled
the monument honoring the Soviet soldiers who had liberated Estonia
from Nazism.
Before, Russians’ negative attitude to the Baltic countries was most
often attributed to the abuse of the rights of ethnic Russians, who
account for less than seven percent of the population of Lithuania,
13 percent of the population of Estonia and nearly 29 percent of the
population of Latvia.
In the same club of countries unfriendly to Russia, alongside the
"bosom foes" sharing a common Soviet past, there are also the United
States and Poland.
According to the Levada Center, one in two citizens of Russia applies
the term ‘enemy’ to Georgia, and one in three to Latvia (36 percent),
Lithuania (32 percent), and the United States (35 percent).
Also on the list of hostile countries are Ukraine (23 percent), Poland
(20 percent, in contrast to seven percent last year), Afghanistan
(11 percent), Iraq (8 percent) and Iran (7 percent).
On top of the list of friendly countries are Kazakhstan, Belarus,
Germany, China, Armenia and India.
The findings indicate that today, just as a year ago, Russia’s closest
friends are Kazakhstan (33 percent said so in 2006, and 39 percent
in 2007), and Belarus, (47-38 percent).
"The best friends are the same, but changes in their rating are
quite telling," says NEWSru.com. "Firstly, Belarus has lost part of
its supporters and now it has to share the status of Russia’s friend
number one with Kazakhkstan."
Ukraine is rated as an unfriendly country a little bit more rarely
than a year ago, and Poland, a little bit more often.
On the whole, a variety of opinion polls over the past few years
repeatedly confirmed that of all countries Russians like the European
ones most of all – Germany, in the first place. As before, they are
not at all enthusiastic about things American.
The national public opinion studies center VCIOM last October found
that of all parts of the world Russians see Western Europe as the most
attractive place where to resettle, if need be. In case of emergency
36 percent of Russians would prefer to move to that region.
>From that standpoint the most popular countries are Germany (12
percent), and also France and Britain (4 percent each).
All opinion polls held lately confirmed many Russians’ negative
attitude to the United States.
The Public Opinion Fund last September showed that according to one in
two Russians (49 percent) the United States plays a negative role in
the modern world, and only a tiny 16-percent fraction sees its role as
positive. Twenty seven percent of Russians say the United States is a
state friendly to Russia, and 55 percent argue it is unfriendly. This
ratio has remained rather stable over the past two years.
The chief of the analysis department at the Political Technologies
Center, Tatyana Stanovaya, argues that the answer to the question
about the reason for the Russians’ pro-European, pro-German sentiment
and anti-American attitudes lies on the surface.
"The level of relations with Germany makes itself felt. These
relations are more institutionalized than those with the other European
countries," Stanovaya told Itar-Tass.
The political scientist recalled that Germany was one of Russia’s
main foreign economic partners. The factor of President Vladimir
Putin’s personal likes and dislikes is also present. Putin spent in
Germany many years of his career and his attitude to that country
is sympathetic."
"The Russians see that the relationship with Germany is particularly
warm, and this cannot but influence their preferences, too,"
Stanovaya said. As far as the Russians’ pro-European sentiment in
general is concerned, "Europe for Russia is a benchmark in terms of
living standards, social insurance and culture."
The trend towards anti-Americanism, according to the political
scientist, developed back in the 1990s during President Boris Yeltsin’s
rule, when the public at large grew disillusioned about liberalism.
"At first everybody tried to live ‘the way they do in America’,
but then, after the disappointment over the liberal reforms that
myth collapsed," Stanovaya said. "With time this cooling towards the
‘American dream’ was blended with the new Putin-era ideology. The
gist of the latter is this ‘Russia is rising from its knees, while
the United States is creating hindrances, because it wishes to Russia
to stay weak further on’."