Half of Russians negatively perceive NATO and view it as an aggressive alliance resisting Russia and China.
MOSCOW, January 25, 2012. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data about the current Russians` attitudes toward NATO.
About half of Russians (48%) have the right view of what NATO is and describe it neutrally – as “military alliance” (37%) or “international alliance” (11%). Every tenth Russian views NATO as an aggressive organization. Ten percent believe that NATO is American organization and 4% think it deals with peacekeeping. Over the recent two years the number of those who consider NATO as an aggressive organization has decreased from 15 to 9%; on the contrary, the share of those who are neutral has increased from 42 to 48%.
Every second respondent perceives NATO negatively (50%). Negative attitudes increase with the age of respondents - from 40% among young respondents to 55% among the people of pre-retirement age. Those who perceive NATO most negatively are also supporters of CPRF (59%). Only 13% of Russians view NATO positively; they are basically adherents of United Russia party (16%), respondents with high level of income and young respondents (21% for each). Compared with 2009, the share of negative views has declined (from 58 to 50%), and the share of the positive views has increased (from 8 to 13%).
Russians were divided in their opinion about the influence of NATO: 35% consider that its influence remains unchanged, and 31% believe that the influence is increasing. The latter is shared by basically metropolitan residents (53%). Only 7% of Russians (against 12% in 2009) think that NATO`s role is declining.
Russians cite that the key mission of the Alliance is defending the interests of its members - the United States and other countries (28% for each group). Negative connotations such as “NATO`s aggression against other states”, “containment of Russia and China” are shared by 24 and 17% of Russians, respectively. Russians often say that some missions of NATO are positive such as fight against terrorism (19%), fight against drug dealing (10%), combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction (16%). Thus, Russians` negative and positive views about NATO are relatively balanced.
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted October 22-23, 2011. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4 %.
In your opinion, what is NATO? (open-ended question, not more than three answers) | ||
| 2009 | 2011 |
North-Atlantic military alliance which involves several states | 35 | 37 |
International alliance, organization | 7 | 11 |
American military organization | 9 | 10 |
Aggressive military alliance, against Russia | 6 | 5 |
Peacekeeping organization designed to settle conflicts | 3 | 4 |
Aggressive military alliance which intervene in the affairs of other states | 9 | 4 |
Useless, unnecessary organization | 1 | 0 |
Other | 1 | 1 |
Hard to tell | 34 | 31 |
What is your general attitude towards NATO? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||
| 2009 | 2011 |
Rather positive | 8 | 13 |
Rather negative | 58 | 50 |
I did not hear anything about this organization, I do not know | 14 | 15 |
Hard to tell | 20 | 22 |
In your opinion, is the role of NATO in modern world politics increasing or decreasing? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||
| 2009 | 2011 |
The role remains the same | 30 | 35 |
The role is increasing | 26 | 31 |
The role is decreasing | 12 | 7 |
Hard to tell | 31 | 27 |
In your opinion, what is the key NATO`s mission? (close-ended question, not more than three answers) | |||
| 2006 | 2009 | 2011 |
Defend and promote the U.S. interests in the international arena | 26 | 41 | 28 |
Defend the interests of the member states | - | - | 28 |
Conduct aggressive military actions against other states | 21 | 31 | 24 |
Fight against international terrorism* | - | - | 19 |
Deter interests of such states as Russia and China* | - | - | 17 |
Combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction | 24 | 13 | 16 |
Combat drug and organized crime | 21 | 10 | 10 |
Conduct peacekeeping operations | 17 | 10 | 8 |
Currently NATO has lost its mission and it is nothing but the vestige of the Cold war | 11 | 12 | 6 |
Exchange experience and military technologies with other states | 13 | 6 | 5 |
Hard to tell | 23 | 23 | 20 |
* There were no such variants of answers in 2006 and 2009.
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!