Almost half of Russians (47%) believes in poor relationships between Minsk and Moscow. This is proved by the results of nationwide survey conducted by Public Opinion Foundation. However, only 16% of respondents described the Russian-Belarusian relations as good, and every fifth person stated his negative attitude to the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko.
According to the poll, 20% of Russians believe the situation to improve, 8% hold the opposite view. Every fourth respondents (25%) believes that relations between the two countries will not change even with time. 47% were indecisive, Korrespondent.net. reports
Relating to the question of problems between Moscow and Minsk, 12% of Russians said that the president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, who «has the wrong policy towards Russia» is to blame. Another 6% of respondents believe that «the authorities of the two countries can’t find the common ground» and that the reason for this is the «gas conflict».
Lukashenko internal politics, his political game before the presidential elections in Belarus and the actions of Russian authorities were also recognized as the main reasons.
Speaking about the attitude towards Lukashenko, 57% of Russian citizens admitted their indifference. 20% have a negative attitude, 12% — a positive one, and 1% was unaware of this person.
On October 3, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accused the president of Belarus in his video blog of making Russia one of the main enemies to his country.
The next day, the Kremlin issued an official statement saying that relations with the leadership of Belarus had reached an impasse. On October 6 Russian State Duma adopted a statement which called on Minsk not to spoil the allied strategic relationships for the sake of «opportunistic political interests.» In response, the Belarusian parliament members called on their Russian colleagues to do everything possible to maintain relations between the two countries in a constructive way.
