Polls show that Ukrainians are unhappier than neighbors in Russia and Belarus as the nation's Jan. 17 presidential election approaches.
Ukrainians are unhappy, pessimistic and ready for protests – even more so than their neighbours in Russia and Belarus.
Those are the findings of a new public opinion poll conducted in all three nations.
“In all three countries, the crisis affected almost the same number of people,” said Vladimir Zharykhin, deputy director of Russia’s CIS Countries Institute. “Yet Ukrainians’ pessimism is conditioned by the nation’s attitude to the power.”
The poll, conducted by Ukraine’s marketing and sociology research company R&B Group with the Russian Public Opinion Research Center and Belarus’ Novak, found this:
62 percent of Ukrainians are anxious about the economic crisis; 60 percent think it is just beginning;
By comparison, only 53 percent of Russians and 30 percent of Belarusians are anxious about the crisis;
Only 17 percent of Ukrainians said that the crisis has not affected their ability to concentrate on their duties; the same answer was given by 41 percent of Russians and 49 percent of Belarusians;
More Ukrainians (67 percent) than Russians (53 percent) and Belarusians (46 percent) said they would face problems with finding a new job if being fired;
Only 17 percent of Ukrainians think that the world economic crisis will soon come to an end, while 25 percent of Russians and 32 percent of Belarusians share this opinion;
Asked which countries of the world would suffer from the crisis the most, 65 percent of Ukrainians named their country, while only 18 percent of Russians named theirs.
Ukrainians have another reason to be worried. Some 38 percent don’t have savings to support themselves in case they lose their jobs; only 3 percent have enough saved to live on for one year.
And Ukrainians also don’t have faith in government. R&B’s poll shows that 72 percent of Ukrainians said they do not trust the institutions of the state power. Andriy Blinov, director of Russia’s Research Institute, said 80 percent of Ukrainians don’t trust their banking system and 57 percent prefer to keep their saved money in cash.
Pessimism runs deep in the nation’s psychology. “Historically, the complex of ‘victim’ has been formed in Ukraine that doesn’t exist in Russia and Belarus,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, director of Penta political research center. “We form the nation not on our successes, but on defeats.”
The more unhappy people are, the more they are willing to join protests to protect their interests. “The protest mood will increase if the crisis deepens,” said Andriy Yermolayev, head of Sofia Social Studies Center. He noted that only 38 percent of Ukrainians polled said they would not join protests. The majority of Russians and Belarusians said they would not join protests.
“Russia and Belarus have a monolithic policy and all information is under control of those in power,” Yermolayev said. “It is dangerous to protest in Belarus and Russia”.
So far, according to recent Freedom House ratings, Ukraine is considered to be a free country providing a good level of political and civil rights, while Russia is regarded as not free and Belarus as a nation with a repressive regime.
All of this adds up to a nation looking for a new political elite. Ex-parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s rating has increased two percent in the last month, increasing his chances to become president, but still leaving him behind Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and ex-Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych in popularity.
But new faces could emerge from protests. “There could be some new leaders of eventual protest movements, if they prove their effectiveness,” Yermolayev said.
