BELARUSIANS DON’T FEAR NATO AND WANT TO JOIN EUROPE :: Charter'97 :: News

Interesting data were presented today at another quarterly briefing of the Belarusian “thought factories”, at which they considered political, economic and sociological outcomes of the third quarter of 2002. According to the results of the NISEPI sociological research, 53,8% of Belarusians are supportive of the unification of Belarus and Russia. 53,4% would vote for Belarus’ accession into the European Union at the hypothetic referendum. Moreover, what we see is a great rise in pro-western moods. The number of people, deeming that NATO extension eastwards bears no threat to Belarus increased since 1999 by more than two times. At the same time only 32,2% of our countrymen uphold Putin’s idea on Belarus’ incorporation by Russia.

Table 1

Distribution of answers to the question “Given today there was a referendum on Belarus’ accession into the European Union, how would you vote?” (September 2002)

Variant	%
For	53,4
Against	8,1
Wouldn’t vote at all	13,0

Table 2*

Dynamics of answers to the question “If today there was a referendum on unification of Belarus and Russia, how would you vote?” %

Variant	03’99	04’00	04’01	04’02
For unification	41,8	55,7	56,6	53,8
Against unification	40,4	27,6	28,4	23,0
Wouldn’t take part in the voting	14,7	15,6	14,6	11,6

*No data for September

Table 3

Distribution of answers to the question: “Russian president proposed to hold in spring 2003 referendum on the issue: “Do you agree that Russia and Belarus should merge into a sole state on the basis of the following principles:

a) equal rights and freedoms of all citizens
b) equality of the Russian regions and Belarus
c) formation of the union’s bodies of power under the Russian Constitution?”

In case such a plebiscite takes place, how would you vote?” (September 2002)

Variant	%
I’ll say that I agree	32,3
I’ll say that I don’t agree	26,3
Don’t know yet, depending on the circumstances	31,7
Wouldn’t take part in such a referendum	8,0

Table 4

Dynamics of answers to the question: “Does NATO’s extension pose danger to Belarus?” %

Variant	06’99	11’99	04’01	09’02
No	17,6	20,2	23,5	41,2
Yes	47,7	43,7	36,8	31,3

Charter’97 coordinator Dmitry Bondarenko is commenting on the NISEPI data:

“This statistics is yet another proof that as many Belarusians want to join the EU as those, who are willing to join Russia. These data can be by right called sensational, for in course of the last ten years the Belarusian anti-western media provoked anti-western hysteria and, along with the Russian TV channels, they carried out campaign, lobbying Russia-Belarus merger. Supporters of a slogan “Belarus into Europe” surely didn’t have such an opportunity.

At the briefing some of the participants actively promoted the slogan: “With Russia to Europe”. In my opinion, there exist only two ways “Belarus to Europe” or “Belarus to Russia”. Mentality “With Russia to Europe” is extremely dangerous and fallacious for any political integration with the East-European neighbor will mean the loss of sovereignty for our people. President Putin, along with other Russian leaders, says that in open. However, despite Putin’s popularity in Belarus, as manifested by the sociological research data, his idea of Belarus’ accession into the Russian Federation is not supported by the majority of Belarusian citizens.

The tables’ data also display the rise in pro-western moods, while the number of supporters of unification with Russia has slightly fell down over the past two years”.