Survey: In the event of war, 45% of Russians in Estonia ready to help defend country
A recent study showed that, in the event of war, 71% of ethnic Estonians and 45% of ethnic Russians would be prepared to participate in the war and defend Estonia to the best of their ability.
In the same survey, 90% of Estonians and 69% of Russians answered yes to the question, "Should an Estonian citizen fight for the country in a war?"
"Considerably more people are in favor in principle of citizens participating in the defense of their country," explained Art Johanson, analyst at the Estonian Institute for Social Research. "This result was to be expected, as the survey sample included the elderly, women, and other population groups that may not consider themselves as able to participate in defense activity.
"Ethnic Russian voters do consider defense activity to be a citizen's civic duty, but tend to not consider this duty to apply to them as Estonian citizens as well. At the same time, it is critical to note that ethnic Russians' answers seem to be affected a great deal by their level of fluency in the national language," added Johanson.
Opinions on the subject of Russia as a security threat are clearly divided by linguistic lines. 88% of Russian-speaking citizens were of the opinion that Russia is not a threat to Estonian security, while only 28% of Estonian-speakers agreed with this statement.
Research was conducted by market research firm Turu-Uuringute AS, and included a sample size of 795 citizens of the Republic of Estonia aged 18 or over.
Editor: Editor: Aili Sarapik