ANNUAL SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT
Annual speech of the president is a significant political event in a country. Belarus is not an exception. Two thirds of the Belarusians (68.5%) knew that on May 23 President A. Lukashenko came with the annual statement to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly (30.9% knew nothing about this). Remarkably, this "math of awareness" about V. Putin’s annual statement in Russia was the same to one percent...

WHOSE INTERESTS DOES A. LUKASHENKO UPHOLD?
The Belarusians are pretty clear-cut about the future. They can believe or believe not in it but they certainly have their personal opinions about the programs initiated by the president. Therefore, this is not by chance that “No Answer” line (See Table 1) contains the lowest figures. Please compare it with the appropriate line of Table 2. Assessment of what they saw over lately makes a problem for many...

"HOMO SOVETICUS"
During the nation opinion poll conducted by independent sociologists in March-April of 2006, interviewees were asked the question “Do you think you are rather a European or a Soviet man?" Answers were distributed in the following way: think they are rather Europeans – 36% of respondents, rather Soviet men – 52% and found it difficult to answer – 12%...

INDIRECT INDICATORS OF DISCONTENT
Publicized data of the opinion polls conducted in March-April of 2006 and pertaining to the results of the election campaign generated sharp criticism of different political forces. Criticism of the authorities was manifested in one more notice from the Prosecutor’s Office to Prof. O. Manaev which threatened with criminal responsibility...

TRUST TO THE CIVIL SOCIETY IS GOING DOWN...
Results of the opinion poll show that trust of the Belarusian society to basic state institutions has increased over lately. As it goes from Table 1, the part of those who trust these institutions has increased 1.4-1.6-fold (This is trust to the Army only which increased by 3%). With insignificant fluctuations, this growth has been taking place for the past three years already...

ECONOMICS VS. LIVING
As the polling data shows, population in general positively estimates change in its welfare (See Table 1). It pins even greater hopes on improvement of social situation in the very near future...

FOLLOWING GAS CONFLICT
Possible rise in prices for gas to the international level in 2007 still hits the headlines of non-state newspapers. As regards state-run mass media, they try not to set up a clamor around this, yet they don’t keep silent either. The official version was certainly presented by Sovetskaya Belorussia (‘If the boyfriend has been wounded, the girlfriend will replace him…’ published in No. 104 of June 7, 2006)...

A. LUKASHENKO VS. V. PUTIN: WHO WILL HAVE THE UPPER HAND?
The latest achievement of Russia-Belarus’ many-years integration is the so-called Union State, the key idea of which remains unclear even for experts. Suggestions about possible head of this obscure formation are vague as well. Although the situation is absolutely hypothetical, this question is quite reasonable for sociological studies since it has been discussed for long time in the Belarusian society...

INTEGRATION WITH RUSSIA AS A MEANS OF POWER RETENTION
Two out of three Belarusians presently think that Russia’s policy towards Belarus is positive. Only 14.4% – every seventh – estimate it as negative. The first group incorporates more supporters of Russia-Belarus close integration than the second one. Remarkably, the second group has approximately equal number of A. Lukashenko’s supporters and opponents. Is this possible? Quite possible, as one can see...

EUROPEAN MINIMUM
December of 2002 when, according to opinion polls, the number of those who stood for accession of Belarus to the EU reached its record of 61% is already a far-away past. During the past three years, we observe steady, yet with certain fluctuations, decrease in the number of Europe-oriented Belarusians while the number of respondents saying “no” to the European prospects for this country has been going up...

ARE WE LOOKING FOR CHANGES?
These words from the song by Victor Zoj were a kind of a password for the generation of late 80-ies – early 90-ies of the past century. How strong are expectations for changes in the present-day Belarusian society? Data in Tables 1 and 2 discover two aspects of this expectation – how strongly people want changes and how possible they think these changes are...

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN BELARUS IN THE EYES OF BELARUSIANS
The main feeling that led millions of Belarusians to vote for ex-director of a collective farm A. Lukashenko at the presidential election of 1994 was the need of social justice which, in their opinion, was greatly distorted following violent transformations of late 80-ies – early 90-ies. Since then, whatever changes home and foreign policy of Belarus underwent, the president does his best to remain a guarantor of social justice in the eyes of the majority...

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