Russia's partners have lost interest in Russia

In 2023, attitudes towards Russia cooled in Armenia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The National Research Institute for the Development of Communications (NIIRK) presented the corresponding report at a meeting of the Federation Council commission on information policy, Kommersant writes . At the same time, the regimes in these countries are still assessed as “friendly,” experts noted.

According to NIIRK, Russia began to be treated worse in Georgia; the trend continued in Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Moldova - they are included in the category of “unfriendly” countries.

The report at the meeting was presented by Valentina Komleva, Deputy Director for Scientific Work at NIIRK. According to her, the “friendliness” of countries was assessed according to 74 indicators, which are combined into 12 groups with different influences: educational, media, scientific, cultural, economic, foreign policy, non-profit, interregional, youth and religious communications, attitude towards Russians and freedom of movement between countries. The maximum and minimum possible scores are plus and minus one hundred points, respectively.

In Azerbaijan, the “friendliness” of the regime decreased from 57 to 50.1 points. According to experts, the decrease was due to the war in Artsakh and Azerbaijan’s strategic partnership with Turkey. In Kazakhstan, whose “friendliness” score dropped from 58.4 to 50 points, the situation changed allegedly due to “cooperation with countries unfriendly to Russia and a new interpretation of historical events.” The change in attitude towards Russians in Armenia (from 58.3 to 46 points), according to NIIRK, was influenced by the behavior of “the elite blaming Russia for their own failures.”

According to experts, the situation is worst in the Baltic countries and Ukraine: Estonia scored minus 57.7 points, Lithuania - minus 59.9 points, Latvia - minus 63.9, and Ukraine - minus 89.6 points. In these countries, experts are convinced, “Russophobia and hostility towards Russia are flourishing.”

According to the results of the study, Moldova was excluded from the list of countries with a “relatively friendly” regime: in 2022 it scored 8.3 points, and in 2023 - minus 16.1. The report states that “hostility towards Russia is actually provoked from outside,” in particular by Romania.

Although experts recorded a “warming” in relations with Georgia in 2022, in 2023 the “friendliness” score dropped from 24.2 to 12 points. At the same time, economic relations between the countries became more active - for example, direct flights were allowed. NIIRK believes that this indicates discord within the Georgian elite.

“People come to power who had no experience of life in the USSR, who did not participate in the formation of post-Soviet agreements, and who very boldly, without assessing the consequences, rethink the role of Russia,” said Valentina Komleva.

The authors of the report included partially recognized South Ossetia (93.5 points) and Abkhazia (81.4 points), as well as Belarus (87.6 points) in the top most “friendly” countries. The NIIRK category of “allies” included Kyrgyzstan (60.3 points), Tajikistan (58.7) and Uzbekistan (55.2 points).

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