Post-Soviet Population Survey – Russia, Region's Number One Threat
As expected, considering current political situation, citizens of surveyed countries named the
countries with which political relations have been developing on background of sharp disagreements
and conflicts in recent history, as most unfriendly and dangerous for their own
countries with which political relations have been developing on background of sharp disagreements
and conflicts in recent history, as most unfriendly and dangerous for their own
The respondents of the survey held in the post-Soviet space (except for Baltic States), evaluated countries that are unfriendly and dangerous for their own. In each country, 1200 respondents participated in the study.
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As it turned out, Georgians and Ukrainians perceive Russia as the most dangerous country in comparison with others. 70% of Georgians (see Chart #1) and 73% of Ukrainians unequivocally assessed Russia as the most unfriendly country towards their countries. |
| We got interesting results in Moldova and Belarus, where almost one-third of the population thinks that there is no country that is unfriendly towards them (Moldova - 30%, Belarus - 31%). At the same time, in aforementioned Belarus and also in Russia, USA is considered the most dangerous country. 41% of respondents in Belarus and 62% of respondents in Russia think so (see Chart #2). |  |
Not surprisingly, Armenia and Azerbaijan perceive each other as the most dangerous and threatening states. Armenian population perceives two countries with such attitude towards Armenia – Azerbaijan (97%) and Turkey (83%). As for Azeri respondents, dangerous country has been clearly identified among them – all of the surveyed Azeri think that the country that is unfriendly towards their own is Armenia.
Ultimately, the results of survey in the South Caucasus region (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) identified following threatening countries for the region – Russia, USA and the Arab-Islamic countries. These countries were named threatening in all three countries of the region.
| If we compare Russia and the United States, Russia is perceived to be more threatening (28.7%) than the USA (2.8%) in the region. It is noteworthy though that while this tendency is evident in all three countries of the region, this outcome is still largely determined by Georgia's assessment, where Russia's assessment as a threatening country is significantly higher than USA's assessment (see Chart #3). |  |
The change in the opinion of Georgians about Russia's unfriendliness is interesting. This change shows that, in the end, the tendency to perceive Russia as a threatening country has declined. In particular, the number of people with such an opinion has decreased by 8% in recent years (see Chart #4).
