Galery

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The crisis in Ukraine is an event that continues to resonate in the international community with full force. In our last poll we asked you what should be the European response to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The subject is particularly topical for our region due to numerous factors, starting from the geographical proximity of the conflict and going through the political, economic and purely human ones. Bulgaria and Greece are part of the European Union and NATO, and we have active economic ties with Russia and rely on Russian tourists to visit our tourist resorts. In practice it turns out that, being members of the union, we should follow the common European policy, which will lead to direct consequences for our economies. Last but not least, Russia is a major source of natural gas for the European Union.

The poll results were surprising to us. The largest numbers of readers in our three language versions have preferred to state that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is acting properly because he is thus restoring the geopolitical balance after the fall of the "iron curtain".

In the Bulgarian version of grreporter.info, the percentages are as follows: 36% of voters support Putin, 22% believe that the European Union has triggered the crisis with its intention to associate Ukraine. 19% perceive the policy of Brussels as inconsistent as it granted 240 billion euro for over 11-millionth Greece but did not want to support 50-millionth Ukraine with 25 billion euro. 13% of our readers are at the other extreme as they define the position of the European Union towards what is happening in Ukraine as too timid and soft. Only 9% of all respondents believe that Europe must break all ties with Russia.

In the Greek version, the opinions are clearly in support of Russia’s policy. Whole 62% believe that Putin is acting properly in a geopolitical context, trying to restore the positions of Russia after the Cold War. 21% of readers support the position that the European Union is inconsistently acting in terms of the financial aids distributed by it and 18% perceive Europe as the main culprit for the raging conflict in the former Soviet republic. The two options for a firm line on the part of the European Union did not receive any votes and their percentage is 0. The readers of the Greek version do not want a stricter and uncompromising policy towards Russia.

The responses in the English version of our website are most surprising to us. Although the poll in this version is the most challenging one, yet the most preferred option by the readers, with 29%, remains the one that recognizes the right of Putin to pursue his geopolitical claims to Ukraine. Second in the rank, with 24%, are the options that the European Union has triggered the crisis and that the policy of Europe is too soft. The option of Europe’s inconsistent financial policy and support collects 13% and the remaining 10% are in support of breaking all ties with Russia.

We can definitely conclude that the poll results in the three language versions of grreporter.info show that the pro-Russian attitudes among our readers, who voted in the poll, are quite strong. While in Bulgaria these attitudes are a reflection of our recent past as part of the socialist bloc, the responses in the Greek and the English versions of the website are really surprising due to the outstanding support to the policy of Russia and the sharp reaction to the European Union.

GRReporter covers the events in Ukraine and strives to present a viewpoint in the light of our region, perceptions and attitudes. As the crisis is not over, we will continue to present various opinions to you and to reflect the reactions in the Balkans.

We would like to thank all readers for participating in the poll and invite you to share your opinion in our new one, namely, Will you vote in the elections for European Parliament.