Poll: Caucasus States “Least-Threatened” by NATO.
Poll: Caucasus States “Least-Threatened” by NATO.

According to the 2016 Gallup polling in European and Eurasian states, public in the former Soviet space hold divergent views of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Predictably, Russians are most likely to say that they feel threatened by NATO, that view was expressed by 67 percent of those polled. That perception was endorsed by 54 percent of respondents in Belarus, 35 percent in Ukraine and similar numbers throughout Central Asia and Moldova. By contrast, only 8 percent of those polled in Georgia, 16 percent in Azerbaijan and 20 percent in Armenia shared this view.

Georgian respondents were most likely to view NATO as protector – 37 percent, followed by Ukraine – 29, Kazakhstan – 25, Azerbaijan – 21 and fewer elsewhere.

At the same time, large segments of respondents viewed NATO as neither threat nor protector, with 44 percent in Azerbaijan, 38 percent in Armenia and Moldova and 35 percent in Georgia holding that view.

As the survey found perceptions of NATO are also contradictory among member states. Thus, majority of respondents in Greece, Bulgaria, Slovakia, as well as in Montenegro – expected to join this spring – didn’t see the alliance as protecting their countries. (Turkey was not part of the poll.)