Distrust of Russia’s policy towards Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has increased compared to two years ago, according to the latest survey of citizens’ attitudes by the International Republican Institute (IRI).
In the part of the research of the IRI on the opinion of citizens which country they see as the most important political threat to the country in which they live, 41 percent of the surveyed citizens of BiH believe that Russia is one of the biggest political threats to their country.
Such results represent an increase compared to the results of the IRI research from 2020, explains Amila Karacic, deputy director of the IRI program for BiH.
“We see that the citizens of BiH recognized the threat posed by Russia to BiH even before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2020, 26 percent of citizens believed that Russia was a political threat to BiH. In February 2022, that percentage increased to 41 percent,” says Karacic.
The survey also shows that there is still a high percentage of BiH citizens who believe that Russia is not one of the biggest political threats, but the percentage is slightly lower compared to 2020, when 48 percent of BiH citizens were convinced of this attitude.
Karacic says that differences in the understanding of Russia’s role among ethnic groups in BiH are expected and that Serbs in the region, not only in BiH, express clear pro-Russian attitudes and support for Vladimir Putin.
“Bosniaks and Croats, who show the greatest support for the European Union (EU) and NATO integration, have, as expected, extremely negative attitudes towards Russia. We see similar differences in the understanding of Russia’s role in Montenegro and Macedonia. The support of the majority of the citizens of BiH for European integration is encouraging, however, we see in the examples of Kosovo and Macedonia that this support falls when they do not see significant progress on that path,“ toldKaracic.
She explains that most people in the Western Balkans have a pro-Western orientation, with the exception of Serbia, where the prevailing view is that Serbia should have a pro-Russian foreign policy and where 88 percent of citizens have a positive opinion of Vladimir Putin. Also, Russia’s influence has been growing in BiH for years, and Russia’s goal is very clear to distance BiH from the Euro-Atlantic route.
But Vladimir Putin, according to IRI’s research, is the third most popular leader of some other country in BiH with full or partial approval of 43 percent. The percentage of citizens who completely or partially disapprove of it is 42.
Bojan Klacar, director of the Center for Free Democracy and Elections from Serbia, says that the perception of Russia and China in BiH and North Macedonia is behind western and regional countries, but that it should not be overlooked that a significant part of the population in BiH and North Macedonia has a positive relationship with Russia and China.
The research shows that 18 percent of BiH citizens believe that the Republic of Turkey is the biggest political threat to BiH, which is a growth of three percent compared to the same answer in 2020. But still 70 percent of citizens believe that Turkey does not represent the most important political threat, which is an increase in that opinion in the submission for the year 2020 when 59 percent of those surveyed thought so.
The People’s Republic of China represents the greatest threat to BiH for 24 percent of BiH citizens, while 13 percent of respondents had the same opinion about China in 2020. The percentage of those who do not agree with that statement is the same as two years ago – 60 percent of those surveyed think that China is not the biggest threat to BiH, Detektor writes.
E.Dz.
