70% of Russians are aware of the migration crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus.
About a third of respondents aware of the situation believe that the EU and Polish authorities are to blame for what is happening – 32% and 30% respectively. 22% are blaming the US government, 20% blame the migrants themselves.
TV viewers tend to blame the EU authorities (27%) and Poland (26%) for the crisis. Among readers of print publications, a quarter considers the US foreign policy to be the main reason for the border crisis. 18% of readers of online press, in turn, blame the migrants. Among those who get their news primarily via Telegram channels, the amount of people blaming the EU and Polish authorities for the current situation is the least (6% and 19%); however, the group of people, believing the Belarusian authorities are at fault here, stands out – 22%.
Almost half of the respondents believe the solution to the problem would be to return the migrants to their home countries.
For most information sources, the prevailing opinion is that the solution to the crisis lies in the expulsion of migrants outside Europe. The exception is the readers of printed publications: half of them tend to believe that migrants should be allowed into the EU.
METHODOLOGY
This survey was conducted November 25 – December 1 2021, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample was comprised of 1603 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The answer distribution is presented as percentages of the total number of participants along with data from previous surveys.
The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for indicators around 50%
2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%
2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%
1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%
The ANO Levada Center is included in the registry of non-commercial organizations acting as foreign agents.