Window on Eurasia

Russians Remain Divided on Who Their ‘Compatriots’ Are

Paul Goble

Vienna, July 25, 2006 – Despite President Vladimir Putin’s plan to promote the return of “compatriots” to the Russian Federation to help solve that country’s demographic problems, Russian citizens are far from united in defining just who is included in this category and just what their government should be doing for or about them.

Yesterday, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion
(VTsIOM) published the results of a poll of 1600 Russians conducted
earlier this month about their understanding of the term
“compatriots” and their views about what their country should be
doing to help these people however defined
[http://www.wciom.ru/], July 24.

Slightly more than one Russian in five –22 percent – defined
“compatriot as someone “who speaks Russian and identifies himself
with Russian culture, regardless of his nationality or place of
residence. Somewhat more – 33 percent – applied to the term all
citizens of the former Soviet Union.

But the largest share of those sampled on July 8-9 – 40 percent –
chose to define “compatriot” strictly in terms of “blood and
soil” and said that it embraced all ethnic Russians who for whatever
reason find themselves beyond the borders of the current Russian
Federation.

Members of older age groups were more likely to say that compatriots
included all former citizens of the former Soviet Union, while young
people were somewhat more preapred to identify them in terms of
ethnicity alone, the VTsIOM analysts said in their analysis of the
poll.

These very different definitions of who is a compatriot and who is not
not only involve very different numbers of people who might be
candidates for Moscow’s attention but also imply very different
policy options for Putin and the current Russian government.

Slightly more than half of the entire sample – 54 percent – said
they would welcome the return of compatriots as they variously defined
them to the Russian Federation, and somewhat more – 58 percent –
said they believed that Russian policy should be directed at achieving
that end.

Only about one in four – 26 percent – indicated that they wanted
Moscow to seek to promote favorable conditions for compatriots in the
countries these people now find themselves in, and about a third – 35
percent – said they anticipated problems if compatriots were given
special privileges on their return to the Russian Federation.

Nonetheless, Russians at least as sampled by VTsIOM said that they
backed by large majorities the various proposals the Kremlin has made
to help relocate and integrate compatriots who do return to the Russian
Federation.

But despite that welcoming attitude, almost half of the sample – 49
percent – said that the Russian Federation should take in compatriots
only if this was “necessary” for the Russian economy, while 43
percent suggested that Moscow should not make their potential economic
contribution a primary consideration.

Moreover, Russians are divided on how much their government should do
for returning compatriots and how free the latter should be in choosing
where they will live. Fifty-two percent said the state should be
responsible for the relocation and integration of compatriots, but 41
percent said compatriots should bear that responsibility themselves.

One-third of the sample said that the compatriots should be placed in
rural areas, and one-fifth said that they should be said to
underpopulated regions in Siberia and the Far East or in industrial
regions. Only 23 percent of the overall sample thought the compatriots
should be allowed to choose where to live on their own.

Those backing the idea of free choice were least frequently encountered
among the residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg. There, only ten
percent of those polled favored allowing compatriots to make this
choice independently of the views of the state and society.

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