Foto: Institute of Public Affairs

A study of Institute of Public Affairs presented and discussed in Riga on 25 November, 2015.

The publication by Aleksander Fuksiewic and Agnieszka Łada from Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) explores opinions of citizens and experts on issues ranging from the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, relations between coutries in the region and attitude towards reception of refugees.

The first part of their research is based on a representative poll of 1000 respondents in each country, conducted in August 2015 with the help of internet interviews for respondents aged 18-60. The second part includes Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian expert interviews.

Among other findings, it is interesting to note that:

• in the case of an agression by Russia 62% of Poles would send troops to Baltics as part of NATO operations;

• 44% of respondents in Latvia and 29% in Estonia would ease sanctions against Russia in comparison to 8% in Poland and 9% Lithuania;

• support is moderate for sending military equipment to Ukraine – ranging between 27% in Latvia and 43% in Lithuania.

The polls also reveal strong divisions among opinions between people in Latvia and Estonia when correlations are made between poll results and persons’ mother tongue.

Presentation of Agnieszka Łada (IPA) from the launch event (in Englishpdf).

Full text of the study is available here (in Englishpdf).