Less Armenians perceive Russia as a friendly nation
According to the findings of a yearly research conducted by Eurasian Development Bank's (EDB) Centre for Integration Studies, there was a noticeable decline in the perceptions of Russia as a friendly country in Armenia - from 86% in 2015 to 69% in 2016. In 2014 it was the highest among former Soviet republics standing at 87%.
"In all likelihood, the decline was prompted by the position of Russia on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh that saw a series of upsurge in violence over the last two years , as well as a significant increase in the price of electricity supplied by Russian-owned companies", - according to the study.
It says also that in 2016, an average of 82% of respondents in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia and Tajikistan considered neighboring CIS countries as friendly. The lowest trust for post-Soviet countries was demonstrated in Moldova (65%, however compared to 58% in 2015) and Armenia (a decrease from 87% to 72% over the year). While in Moldova the tendency for downgrading the friendliness of other CIS countries, which began several years ago, has shifted to some extent, Armenia's indicator was the lowest over five years of observations.
In the CIS region, Russia remains the friendliest country as viewed by the respondents from the seven countries under consideration. As before, the highest result for this question was recorded in the Kyrgyz Republic (89%), Tajikistan (82%, despite a decrease by 8 percentage points from the previous year), Belarus (82%), and Kazakhstan (81%). The study says also that the perception of Georgia by Armenians as a friendly nation has slashed from 27% to 13%.
The share of respondents in Armenia who found it difficult to provide clear answers was the highest- at 20%. Of them 18% believed that there are no friendly countries at all. The figure for Russia is 16%. It is followed by Moldova (14%) and Belarus (13%).
EDB experts emphasize that the EDB Integration Barometer provides valuable information about citizens' preferences of products from neighboring countries, labor migration, and social and cultural ties. For example, the survey also studied whether people had actual communications with family members, relatives, friends and colleagues in other countries. Approximately 60% of the respondents said they had personal connections in post-Soviet countries. This confirms that the CIS region remains highly integrated in social terms.
The research has been conducted by the EDB Centre for Integration Studies since 2012 in partnership with Eurasian Monitor, an international research agency. -0-