It is widely known that a part of the Belarusian society feels a strong liking for Russia. Alexander Lukashenko’s negative attitude to influential international organizations and the West at large are also common knowledge. In his recent annual address about the situation in the country, which the president made in the Chamber of Representatives, he criticized a number of international financial and political structures again (including NATO, IMF, the Council of Europe etc.) Some of the Chamber Members went to even greater lengths, asking whether there was any reason for the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group to stay and work in Minsk.
Table 1. Distribution of answers to the question “Are the activities of each of these organizations important for Belarus?”, %
The authorities’ motifs are clear: they would like to minimize the influence, that international organizations have in the country, because the results of the course pursued by today’s Belarusian leaders look particularly deplorable against international background. Therefore, the authorities try to get rid of those, who have other experience, so that people would not see an alternative. However, we have to admit that in this case old ideological stereotypes and new official propaganda do not work.
Table 2. The living standards in Belarus should match those in, %
Germany and USA also occupy first places in the list of countries, where Belarusians want to emigrate (Table 3). Generally, high emigration potential of the population is an important indicator. Almost 35% of respondents said they wanted to move to another country, 4% up from the previous year’s figure. Belarusians are ready to leave the country where there are no traditional things, which make people emigrate (ethnic or religious conflicts, military actions etc.) This is an indicator of the existence of latent social tensions in the country, whatever the authorities say about high stability, which they refer to as one of their major accomplishments.
Table 3. Distribution of answers to the question “Would you like to move to another country for good?”, %
The data in Table 2 have an interesting relation to the data in Table 4.
Table 4. Distribution of answers to the question “Which countries, in your opinion, pose a threat to Belarus?”, %
* Other countries were mentioned as potential enemies by less than 1% of respondents each