(1504 persons interviewed, margin of error does not exceed 0.03) 1. Which currency do you trust the most? Variant of answer % US dollars 43.5 Belarusian rubles 33.7 EURO 16.2 Russian rubles 2.0 Other 0.4 DA/NA 4.2 2. Have you spent your annual leave abroad during the past five years? Variant of answer % …
Monthly Archive: September 2005
BULLETINS INFOFOCUS № 9
E-bulletin of IISEPS Center for Documentation, N 9, 2005 (only Russian) Content: Introduction Theme of the month: Beginning of Presidential Election Campaign: Who Started First – Authorities or Opposition? Person of the month: Resignation of Dmitry Bulakhov: Backstage Diplomatic Intrigues or “Just Hard to Work Together”? Document of the month: Justice Ministry’s Regulation No. 49: …
BULLETINS “IISEPS NEWS” N 3 (37) SEPTEMBER
IISEPS News, N 3 (37), 2005 Content: Preface STRENGTHENING PRO-“WIDE EUROPE” ATTITUDES IN BELARUS: September-2005 Foes all around!? Polish issue Those whom the Belarusians trust Who is who in Belarus The currency which Belarusians prefer The incomes they receive in Belarus State care about common Belarusians Are Belarusians concerned about unemployment? What is going on …
TRUST TO THE MASS MEDIA
As Table 1 shows, state-run mass media enjoy the trust of over a half of respondents. As regards non-state mass media, the number of distrusting to them is even greater. In both cases, many respondents didn’t give any answer at all.
RATING OF A. LUKASHENKO AND HIS RIVALS
Data in Table 1 shows that A. Lukashenko’s open rating dropped down right after the presidential election. At the same time, the number of respondents who found it difficult to answer “for whom they would vote if the presidential election is held tomorrow” increased step-wise. Thus, in March of 2003 the percentage of those who found it difficult to answer this question even exceeded A. Lukashenko’s rating.
SIDEWALK DEMOCRACY
The talks about possibility or even imminence of colored revolution in Belarus are very popular among supporters of the opposition. A. Lukashenko’s opponents are convinced that the results of the forthcoming election will be falsified and therefore they will have to stand up victory (if any) in street actions of protest. Can the Ukrainian scenario take place in Belarus? What resources does the opposition have nowadays?
BELARUS – FOR BELARUSIANS?
In the course of research, we studied connection between the language the respondents use for everyday communication and their political standpoints. According to this research, those who speak Russian in everyday life are more disposed to Belarus’ accession into Europe and less – to integration into Russia and they are also less supporters of President A. Lukashenko than Belarusian-speaking respondents.
WHAT DO PEOPLE THINK ABOUT FLUCTUATIONS OF A. LUKASHENKO’S RATING?
Opinion of the population on fluctuations of A. Lukashenko’s rating both depicts public stereotypes and shows the tendency of president’s rating. This is a kind of leading indicator which points out the trend of a rating change. For example, if you ask several people “What time is it now?” an average value will hit almost exact time. Answers to the question on rating aren’t that clear but they show general tendencies. Let’s look at Picture 1.
WHAT IS GOING ON OVER INTEGRATION?
Estimation of integration moods within Belarusian electorate demonstrates progressively decreasing number of Russia-Belarus unification supporters. Today, one of seven-eight respondents wants this union while three years ago every fifth spoke out for this idea. (See Table 1). For the same period, the number of those standing for closer relations of the two countries within the framework of a particular union almost hasn’t changed, although the official propaganda still actively promotes it: from 51.7% to 50.6%, i.e. within the sampling margin of error. At the same time, the number of those who would rather have regular relations between the two countries (like between all CIS countries) increased nearly 1.5-fold.
FOR TRULY BILINGUAL COUNTRY: BELARUSIAN VS RUSSIAN LANGUAGES
Recent hot debates on the broadcasting language of Deutsche Welle’s new radio program have revealed topicality of the language issue in the Belarusian society which is still taken hard. Yet, is it really taken so hard by the society in general? In the course of the debates, both sides referred to the opinion of the majority of Belarusian citizens. In particular, supporters of broadcasting in Belarusian language reminded that over 80% of Belarusians marked the Belarusian language as their native during the population census in 1999. However, their opponents insist that, according to that same population census, almost two thirds of Belarusian citizens speak Russian at home.