One in three Belarusians wants to emigrate - poll

One in three Belarusians (31.3%) wants to leave the country for a permanent residence abroad. Nearly 62% of respondents would rather stay in Bealrus and almost 7% could not answer the question "If you had an opportunity, would you leave for a permandent residence abroad?” or refused to answer, according to the April 2017 survey conducted by the independent pollster Andrei Vardamatski's Belarusian Analytics Workroom.

Over 40% of the country's residence would like to send their children to study at schools and universities abroad. Over 46% of Belarusians are not ready for the move, reports tut.by.

The poll has also seen an increase in the number of Belarusians who want Belarus to become part of Russia from 1.7% in December 2016 up to 4.6% in April 2017. At the same time, the number of those willing Belarus to integrate with Russian in a single union state dropped from 13.1% last year to 12.5%. In December 2016, 73% wanted to see Belarus and Russia as independent but friendly states against 72.7% in April 2017. There is a slight increase in the number of Belarusians who would like to have a proper border with Russia from 6.6% in December 2016 up to 7.1% in April 2017.

Slightly more than 14% support Belarus' union with the European Union (19.1% in December 2016) and 64.5% support a union with Russia (64.9 in December 2016). 65.5% of the respondents agreed that Belarus should be an independent state.