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The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (ACSPO)
is going to present to an audience the results of its recent study of the Russian attitude towards neighbouring countries and their leaders.
Olga Kamenchuk the Head of the PR Department of ACSPO:
I'm going to present you recent data, comparing it with that of last year,
so that you will be able to examine the changes.
They seem to be interesting.
The first question that was asked was to specify the most favourable partners for Russia
(we included in the list all the countries of the former USSR, except those that have entered the EU).
The majority of the respondents answered that such partners are Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine.
The situation is different from last year's,
because Ukraine was not believed to be a good partner before certain political changes in the country.
Speaking about other changes I should say that Belarus is now two times less popular among Russians.
The reason is the existing current conflicts between the two countries.
Still, Belarus is at the top of the list, together with Ukraine,
which has become much more popular (4% last year, 21% this year).
Kazakhstan became more popular (37% instead of 31% in 2009).
Such countries as Georgia are believed to be the worst possible partners, for evident reasons.
Speaking about the countries of Central Asia, I should say that they are not believed to be successful partners,
because the situation in these countries is not reflected in the Russian media,
and our people haven't got enough information.
The second question was "What countries are the most successful and stable?"
The top of the list remains the same - Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine are believed to be the most successful.
I suppose that's not an objective opinion, but an emotional attitude.
Ukraine is believed to be successful and stable because its new authorities are now believed to be friendlier.
Belarus this year is less credible (31% instead of 41%).
Kazakhstan is believed to be the most successful and stable.
The republics of the Caucasus are less popular, and Georgia is the most unpopular among Russians.
The third question was devoted to the leaders of neighbouring countries.
And again the attitude to the Ukrainian leader has changed fundamentally.
If President Yushchenko had an approval rating of 3%, Yanukovich has 17%.
The attitude to President Lukashenko has also changed.
Last year one third of Russians trusted him; now his rating is only 16%.
32% of Russians trust Kazakh President Nazarbayev.
His position is stable.
Other leaders are less credible and less known, as there is not so much information about other countries in the media.
Mikhail Saakashvili is well-known, but unpopular.
It's also interesting to find out which countries Russians want to know more about,
which countries seem interesting to Russians.
20 years ago we chose different ways, but still remain neighbours.
In this poll the answers were a bit different.
All countries are interesting.
Georgia is interesting, even though it's not popular.
The most interesting thing from the point of view of historical heritage is Belarus,
with second place taken by Ukraine and third by Kazakhstan.
More than half of the respondents couldn't answer this question.
This means that they are not informed enough or are not interested in the situation in the near abroad.
Mainly of these are youngsters.
The same situation can be seen in other former republics of the USSR.
Young people in Georgia or Ukraine don't know the Russian language well enough and are not interested in Russian culture.
To sum up, I will say that Russians believe that Kazakhstan is their best partner.
Belarus has become less popular.
Ukraine has become more popular.
President Nazarbayev is the most popular leader of a former USSR republic in Russia,
he seems credible to one third of Russians.