Half of population of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus are sorry about collapse of the USSR and believe that the Soviet Union could have been preserved, the second half thinks the break-up was inevitable. At that the percentage of those feeling sorry for the collapse of the Soviet Union is the highest in Russia (68%). These are results of a study conducted in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus in November 2006 by Eurasian Monitor International Research Agency.

The survey was presented at a news conference on December 7 called “Collapse of the USSR and new integration attitudes: what CIS countries’ citizens think about the former Soviet Union and prospects of the new alliance,” a REGNUM correspondent reports.

In Russia the survey was conducted by VCIOM (1,600 respondents), in Ukraine by R&B Group (2,215), in Belarus by NOVAK Sociological Laboratory (1,107); in Kazakhstan by CeSSI-Kazakhstan Institute for Comparative Social Studies (1,201).

Answering the question “If a referendum on unification of the former Soviet republics into a new alliance would be held today, would you vote for the alliance or against it?”, about a half of respondents in Russia and Ukraine said they would vote for the unification (51% in Russia, 45% in Ukraine, 36% in Belarus); 22% Russians, 25% Ukrainians and 32% Belarusians voted against it.

As head of TsIRKON Research Group Igor Zadorin said, the fact that “30% Russians do not want to unify with anyone (the index is higher than in other countries) destroys the myth about imperial mentality of Russians, on the contrary it shows that young and middle-aged generations in Russia strive for independent development and isolationism.”

Popularity: 3% [?]