Poll finds that 64 percent of Armenians favor their country’s membership in EEU

YEREVAN, September 23. / ARKA /. A recent public opinion poll conducted in Armenia by the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) has found that 64 percent of its citizens favor their country’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) that will replace the Customs Union of   Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus from January 1 next year.

According to the findings of the survey, revealed today by Yevgeny Vinokurov, head of EDB’s Center for Integrative Studies, only 8 percent of Armenians spoke against accession to the Russia-led union and 21 percent of respondents said they did not care. 

Speaking at a video news conference between Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, Vinokurov said the number of Armenian citizens supporting their country’s membership in the EEU has dropped  by 5 percent from the previous survey conducted a year ago. The number of those who were against it was 5 percent last year, he added.

"The drop is not significant. We fix only when it is 5 percent and more. Sixty-four percent is quite a comfortable level of support sufficient for a political decision," he stressed. 

Vinokourov said also that Armenia is today the number one candidate for accession to the Eurasian Economic Union.

"This question will be discussed next month, and, most likely, Armenia’s membership issue will be resolved until the end of the year,” he added. 

The survey called ‘Integartion Barometer 2014” involved over 13,000 respondents in 11 CIS countries  and Georgia.  It was conducted based on gender, age and geography of residence of the respondents. 

On September 1 Russian president Vladimir Putin  okayed signing of an agreement with Armenia on its joining the Eurasian Economic Union. Armenian prime minister Hovik Abrahamyan said on several occasions that  the agreement  would be signed before the end of October. 

Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) is an international financial organization established by Russia and Kazakhstan in 2006 to help develop market economies and boost mutual trade ties in member states. The bank’s authorized stock is over 1.5bln US dollars. The member-states are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. -0-