Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presented data on how Russians assess the success of CIS countries, which of them they would like to see as Russia's partner, which has the best situation with the rights of Russian-speaking population, which leader they trust the most. Answering the question "Which leader of the CIS countries do you trust the most?" respondents named Alexander Lukashenko, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Ilham Aliyev.
Commenting on the results of this survey at TASS press conference, deputy director general of the Moscow State University's Information and Analytical Center Ismail Agakishiev said that opinion of any country's leader is based on the opinion of this country, its nation, and noted that it's only natural that three leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are in the top of this survey.
Speaking about Kazakhstan, Agakishiev expressed the opinion that a large role was played by joint integration projects, especially Eurasian project, initiated by Nazarbayev. As for Belarus, according to him, great relations with this country are logical on the background of what is happening in other Slavic country - Ukraine.
He stressed that another important aspect is the issue of relations with the Russian population in former Soviet republics: "If we look at what is happening in Ukraine, we can see problems with language, with those contradictions that appeared thanks to the current leadership of Ukraine. At the same time, approximately half of the population of Kazakhstan are Russian-speaking people. The head of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev always conducted competent policy, not only economic, but also national. That is why Russian-speaking population did not leave Kazakhstan."
The same situation is typical for Azerbaijan: "This basis has been built since Heydar Aliyev times and strengthened due to recent geopolitical events, after Russia's reunification with Crimea... In an interview with Vesti24 channel Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan will be with Russia, especially in this difficult time. He visited the opening ceremony of Sochi Olympics, Vladimir Putin visited the first European Games in Baku."
In addition, according to Agakishiev, Lukashenko, Nazarbayev and Aliyev are independent in their policy, all three make decisions based on interests of their states and people, and these interests are very similar to the interests of Russian population.
As for the situation with Russian language, he noted that if "there are about 15 thousand Russians in Armenia and 5 thousand in Georgia, there are 150 thousand in Azerbaijan. At least six planes per day are flying between Baku and Moscow, and most of the passengers are Russians, including those who have business in Azerbaijan, maintain business relations."
Another reason for such trust in Presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is their charisma: "All three of them have charismatic personalities. We see that they represent their people with dignity, conduct independent policy, which corresponds to friendly relations with Russia.
