The population of the EAEU countries sees allies in the face of neighboring countries

ArmInfo. According to the  Center for Integration Studies of the Eurasian Development Bank, from  76% to 94% of the population of the countries of the Eurasian  Economic Union sees allies in the face of neighboring countries,  especially Russia.

As the analysts of the Center note, citizens of the countries of the  Union maintain close family and friendly ties. But there are other  trends: the interest of citizens of the EAEU countries in the Russian  education and culture is declining, and the Russian population, in  turn, is increasingly showing closeness to other countries, including  against foreign workers.

Answering a question about which countries, in the opinion of the  respondents, are friendly and capable of supporting their country in  a difficult moment, the majority, as in the last 5 years of  observation, spoke in favor of the CIS region. The greatest trust in  neighbors in the CIS region for the sixth year in a row expresses the  population of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan (in 2017 - 95, 94  and 90% respectively). At the same time, Russia continues to be a  leader in the perception of all respondents as a friendly state: on  average, 76% of all respondents named it as the most friendly country  in the six countries studied. On the second place is Kazakhstan  (31%), on the third - Belarus (21%). To date, we can state that the  countries of the EAEU, as well as Tajikistan, demonstrate a high  degree of mutual trust at the population level. This is an important  prerequisite for the stability of the Union and its attractiveness  for existing and potential member states.

In Russia, Belarus considers the most friendly foreign policy  partners (61%) and Kazakhstan (54%). The third place was transferred  from China to Armenia (almost 40% - growth by 4.5 pp). Also at 12 pp  (up to 17%), the level of friendly perception of India also dropped.  The growth of confidence of Russians is fixed in relation to  Uzbekistan (by 4 percentage points, up to 26% - maximum for 6 years  of observations), Moldova (by 5 percentage points, up to 21% is also  the maximum) and Turkey (by 4 p. up to 7%).

The member states of the EAEU and Tajikistan are characterized by the  highest density of mutual social ties in the world: from 51% to 80%  (excluding Russia) of their population stated that they have  constantly maintained ties with relatives, friends, colleagues from  the countries of the CIS region. This is the highest level of social  ties in the world. The highest rates in 2017 were recorded in  Kyrgyzstan (80%), Armenia (79%) and Tajikistan (66%). In Russia, 31%  of the population supports social ties in neighboring countries in  the CIS region. This is also a very high figure, given the  comparative size of the population.

However, the interest of citizens in obtaining education in the  neighboring countries is decreasing. The population of the countries  of the region most often prefers educational services to foreign  countries, primarily the EU, than neighboring countries in the CIS  region. This is typical first of all for Armenia, Moldova, Belarus  and Russia.