"I'm ashamed of these numbers." Why most Slovaks want Russia in the war - an examination of a scandalous survey from HB

" With this scandalous conclusion, the daily Slovak newspaper Dennik n called an article on the study of the attitude of Slovakia to the war in Ukraine, conducted by the SAS SAS Sociology, together with the MNFORCE Research Agency with the support of the Seesame Communicative Agency. Video of the Research Day and its results have already raised a wave of indignation and surprise both from Ukrainian citizens and among Slovaks who support Ukraine for their sovereignty.

While the researchers themselves call research representative for online users among the population of Slovakia. In the study, the Slovak respondents answered the questions what they would like to see the end of the war in Ukraine and evaluate their answers on a 10-point scale, where 1 meant the desire for a clear victory of Russia, and 10-the wishes of the same unambiguous victory of Ukraine. According to the study, approximately 1/5 of all respondents (20.

6%) would like to see a clear victory of Russia in the war, about the same amount - 19. 9% ​​wishing a pure victory in the war for Ukraine, in the intermediate variants of answers, most respondents, according to interpreters of the study, gravitated to the pole of the Russian victory. About 18% of respondents said it was difficult for them to answer this question. The extent to which research reflects the real picture of social moods in Slovakia, HB spoke with experts from the region.

Martin Langel Political Tour, Media Amenger, in 1998-2006. -The Slovak Prime Minister Mikulash Durindi's results of this survey were shock even for me, Slovak. I am very ashamed of the numbers we all see. I, and several of my colleagues, who have been engaged in public opinion studies in Slovakia for a long time, we still believe that research has a number of methodological errors. For example, a scale is extremely chosen to evaluate the issue of war, data interpretation also raises many questions.

If the "1" score and "10" estimate represent such polar answers to questions, then people who gave an estimate of 5 or 6 points, I would not record in Russia's sympathizers, but rather call people who do not have a clear answer to the given answer question. Seeing such incredible results, my colleagues and I decided to conduct our own expense as a correct sociological study, where we would see a real picture of social moods, which do not impose the sins of this study.

Russophile sentiment in Slovakia is not new, but known for a long time. As with some other Slavic peoples, the Slovaks were very important to the idea of ​​"Slavic brotherhood" and cultural closeness with Russia. This proximity was supported by the good representation of the Russian media and Russian political narratives in Slovakia, the friendship of old Slovak elites with Russian Soviet and post -Soviet elites, as well as the serious energy dependence of Slovakia on Russian oil and gas.