Russians blame the European Union for the Greek economic crisis expecting Greece to leave the EU.

Over the recent year, Greece was mentioned 376 294 times in the Russian media. The monitoring revealed a sharp increase in the number of citations related to Greece in 2015: three-fold increase in the first half of 2015 (278 285) compared to the second half of 2014 (98 009). The most popular events in 2015 were Greek referendum, negotiations to settle the crisis and parliamentary elections. The 2015 developments refer to finding a way out of crisis. The most remarkable events of 2014 are diverse. They are as follows:  the future of Russian tourists in Greece, the fire and rescue activities related to the Norman Atlantic ferry, and negotiations to construct the pipeline between Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.

MOSCOW, July 23, 2015. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the results of the survey concerning the following questions: whether Russians follow the Greek developments; what country is to blame for the crisis; and whether they think it is necessary for Russia to help Greece.  The press release contains the results of the Russian media monitoring carried out by the Medialogia Research Company[1].

Most of Russians are interested in what is happening in Greece: 57% follow the news, including 14% of those who do it attentively and 43% - from time to time. Those who keep track of the situation are mainly Muscovites and St. Petersburgians (79%), respondents with high income (67%), and elderly persons (65% of those aged over 60).

Forty-two percent of Russians blame the European Union for the Greek crisis, because the EU gave more money than Greece was able to pay back (57% of residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg). About one-third of respondents (30%) place responsibility on the country`s government that incurred huge debts (52% of non-parliament parties` supporters).

Many Russians think that if Greece leaves the European Union, it may have negative effects on the EU. Forty-six percent of Russians believe that the EU will weaken; 17% oppose them stating that the EU will benefit from that.

Russian opinions differ on what position Russia should take regarding Greece. On the one hand, 33% believe that Russia should provide diplomatic assistance in negotiations between Greece and the European Union. Thirty percent cite economic help by lifting the ban on Greek products and developing tourism, etc. Providing subsidies and credits is less practical (11%). A further one-third of Russians (33%) do not see any need in providing help to Greece.

The VCIOM opinion poll was conducted July 18-19, 2015; 1600 respondents were interviewed in 130 settlements in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5%.   

Monitoring and analysis of the Russian media publications were carried out by the Medialogia Company using 25800 sources such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, information agencies and online media. The event rankings are based on the Visibility Medialogia score defined as a sum of visible events of certain topic in the biggest media. The study period was July 1, 2014 – July 21, 2015.

TOP five most visible Russian media topics concerning Greece, 2014

(07–12.2014)

TOP five most visible Russian media topics concerning Greece, 2015  

(01–07.2015)

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