Gasparishvili Alexander

EDUCATION

Lomonosov Moscow State University. Diploma. Graduate School

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Social Sciences, Sociology and Political Science

Scopus Publications

Assessment of the health of Russian university professors after the coronavirus pandemic in the context of Sustainable Development Goals
Ivan Aleshkovski, Alexander Gasparishvili, Oksana Krukhmaleva, and Natalia Savina
EDP Sciences
See the retraction notice BIO Web of Conferences 84, 00001 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1051/bioconf/20248400001


Electronic Social Networking Data for Analyzing University Communities: Prospects for the Use




Russian students on the potential and limitations of artificial intelligence in education




Students’ engagement in research at the university: A sociological analysis
N. P. Narbut, I. A. Aleshkovski, A. T. Gasparishvili, O. V. Krukhmaleva, and N. E. Savina
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
One of the priorities of Russia’s scientific-educational policy is to increase the attractiveness of a career in science and higher education. The Russian government implements a number of federal programs aimed at involving the youth in research activities. Students’ research work is a traditional integral part of the educational process, an element of the generational continuity, of the formation and renewal of scientific schools, of tutoring and professional training. However, when students are involved in research, there are difficulties determined by the peculiarities of the organization of the higher education and by the students’ personal characteristics. The article considers the features of the participation of the Russian universities’ students in research, their scientific achievements and problems that limit or hinder their involvement in research activities, reduce their motivation and satisfaction with studies in general. The article is based on the survey of the Russian universities’ students, conducted by the Center for Education Development Strategy of the Moscow State University in November - December 2022 (N = 123977). The results of the survey show that, when studying at the university, students differ significantly in the quality and forms of training, realization of individual abilities and inclinations, level of motivation and requests for higher education. Therefore, the educational process should be organized in such a way as to comprehensively realize the students’ individual abilities, provide a flexible approach to educational trajectories and support the involvement of the majority of students in research activities.


Peculiarities of the Formation of Educational Trajectories of Russian Students: Assessment and Opportunities
I. A. Aleshkovski, A. T. Gasparishvili, O. V. Krukhmaleva, N. P. Narbut, and N. Ye. Savina
Moscow Polytechnic University
New geopolitical challenges that necessitate the formation of a nationally oriented education system require a multidimensional analysis, socio-cultural understanding and the search for new formats for the organization of higher education in Russia. In the conditions of the post-Bologna reality, Russia needs to create its own model of higher education, which will be able to provide the economy with highly qualified personnel, which will coopt all the best from the classical Soviet system of education and will be able to build on the national traditions, interests of students, their parents, teachers and employers. In this regard, it is relevant to analyze and evaluate the requests of nowadays students for these changes and the nature of those changes.The article is based on the materials of the authors’ sociological research (N=123977 people), conducted in 2022.The problematic area of the research supposed that the revision of the existing predominantly two-level (bachelor and master) structure of higher education requires a transition to the optimal and traditional for Russia model of the specialist program with the introduction of more flexible forms of work, the possibility of changing the educational trajectory in the learning process, the search for new ways of academic mobility and universities cooperation.The research data are compared with the data of similar works of Russian and foreign analysts. An analysis of the opinion of Russian students showed that in the process of learning and gradually entering a specialty, some students need certain changes in the chosen training program made upon admission. The possibility or impossibility of implementing these changes determines their motivation for learning, academic achievements, further educational and professional trajectories, and satisfaction with education in general. Based on the analysis done and the results obtained, the authors propose practical steps to form a new structure of higher education based on the specialist program. They suggest recommendations on the necessary changes in the legislative, organizational, educational and methodological nature related to this process.


Starting positions of university applicants and features of their further education: A sociological analysis*
I. A. Aleshkovski, A. T. Gasparishvili, O. V. Krukhmaleva, N. P. Narbut, and N. E. Savina
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
The article considers the features of students’ educational trajectories as depending on how they entered the university. A distinctive feature of the Russian system of higher education is various grounds for the educational transition “school-university”: the results of the Unified State Exam, school Academic Olympics in key subjects, employer-sponsored education, and quotas. These grounds seem to affect the further education of students and the quality of training and professional trajectories. At the same time, the resistance of the higher education system to external challenges, its sustainable competitiveness, modernization and the search for new forms and models of work with the talented youth are priority development tasks of the national higher education system. The article presents the results of the comparative analysis of the students’ motivation for learning, educational achievements, ideas about possible professional and educational trajectories. The analysis is based on the data of the Russian students survey conducted by the Center for Educational Development Strategy of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and RUDN University in November-December 2021 (N = 37457). The research findings show that at the stage of the transition from school to university, there is a very heterogeneous student inflow by quality and forms of training, individual abilities and inclinations, motivation and requests to the higher education. There is a special group - prize-winners of school Academic Olympics - of the most talented and promising applicants. The admission companies show that variable grounds for entering universities lead to certain conflicts and contradictions in the higher education system.


Managing of Social Transformations in the Context of Globalization and Digitalization: A Conceptual Framework
Ivan Aleshkovski
LLC Integration Education and Science
This article is based on the data from an expert survey conducted as part of Lomonosov Moscow State University interdisciplinary research project “Management of social transformations in the context of global processes and problems”. The aim of the study was to identify the international expert community’s ideas of how it was possible to manage social transformations in the context of globalization. The experts of the survey were scholars from various countries, i. e., political scientists, sociologists, and economists, whose scientific interests encompass global governance studies. The experts assessed the effectiveness of today’s global governance institutions and the prospects for improving the mechanisms of global governance; they also expressed their views on the key global challenges facing humanity, and on possible scenarios for the development of globalization for the nearest decade. Proceeding from the expert survey, the authors made the following conclusions: most experts believe that the existing institutions of global governance are in a state of crisis and are unable to perform their functions in conditions of global macroeconomic and political instability; effective global management of social transformations is possible if the institutions of global civil society reflecting the interests and values of not only developed countries, but also the traditions and significant values of developing countries emerge and start working.


Personal characteristics of the focus group participants as a factor of the data quality
Zh. V. Puzanova, T. I. Larina, A. T. Gasparishvili, K. V. Radkevich, and S. V. Zakharova
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
The article presents the results of the search for methodological ways to improve the quality of sociological information obtained in the focus group discussion. Today the scientific sphere is changing, and, in addition to the development of new methods, the existing interdisciplinary ones are being adapted to the specific research goals. An important way for improving sociological methods is the study of psychological aspects of respondents behavior during focus groups, since unconscious reactions can indicate the potential information bias and affect the quality of the project results. In the RUDN University, a three-stage methodological experiment was conducted based on the psychological technique 7 radicals, the Specific Affect Coding System (SPAFF) and the personal differential method. At the first stage, the experiment aimed at examining the ability of respondents without special knowledge in the field of psycho-typing to identify the dominant radicals. At the second stage, representatives of different psycho-types assessed each other so that the researchers would develop recommendations for the seating of focus group participants. At the third stage, the quality of the data obtained in focus groups was assessed depending on the moderators special skills (knowledge of psycho-types, FACS and SPAFF). Thus, the recommendations for moderators were developed - to increase the efficiency of work with focus group participants and to improve the quality of sociological data. The moderator needs knowledge in three areas: respondents psycho-types, affects in SPAFF, and the proxemic component (seating of respondents). The authors assess the prospects for introducing psychological techniques into the training system for focus group moderators and provide recommendations for moderators based on the results of the multi-stage experiment. Its results partially solve the problem of the quality of the focus group data by explaining the need to teach moderators interdisciplinary techniques (SPAFF and psycho-typing of the focus-group participants).


Russian students about learning under the covid-19 pandemic: Resources, opportunities and assessment of the distance learning
I. A. Aleshkovski, A. T. Gasparishvili, O. V. Krukhmaleva, N. P. Narbut, and N. E. Savina
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
The covid-19 pandemic has made the whole world face specific challenges that required urgent decisions on how to organize the work of social institutions, including education, in this new reality. Since March 2020, national education systems all over the world have been adapting their activities to the quarantine measures and have been switching to distance learning. In varying degrees, these changes affected all levels of education - from preschool to higher and postgraduate education. However, the tasks to be solved differed by the level of education. The article presents the results of the comparative analysis of the activities of the Russian higher-educational institutions based on their students estimates - during the forced distance learning in the spring of 2020 and during the planned switch to such a format in the fall of 2020. The article is based on the surveys of the Russian students conducted in June 2020 (N=31423) and February 2021 (N=32358). The study was conducted to test the hypotheses that negative estimates of distance learning and rejection of such a format by many students in the spring of 2020 changed in the fall of 2020. The results of two surveys show that Russian universities have passed through the stage of digital transformation which affected both the resources for organizing the educational process and the competences of the teaching staff. The experience of work in the difficult and unpredictable conditions of the pandemic changed the public opinion from the negative perception of distance learning to understanding and accepting its positive features for the education system and its actors. The introduction of digital technologies is an objective and inevitable process in the development of the educational sphere and the country.


Russian higher school: Forced distance learning and planned switch to distance learning during pandemic (experience of sociological analysis)
I. A. Aleshkovski, A. T. Gasparishvili, O. V. Krukhmaleva, N. P. Narbut, and N. E. Savina
Moscow Polytechnic University
Challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic require structural analysis and sociocultural comprehension, which has and will for quite a while have multi-aspect and systemic nature. All elements of the social system have been forced to function in the stress regime in the absence of any basic patterns and tried-and-true methods to solve the arising problem. The overall uncertainty in the organization of the social life and the enforced and, at times, very contentious steps taken at various levels of management have caused polarization of opinions as to the functioning of all social institutions. Special pressure has been put on education, since it is this institution that is mainly responsible for the social system’s stability. In this regard, it has been important and significant to comprehensively study the problems and limitations associated with the functioning of the higher education system in Russia during the pandemic, as well as to analyze the change in tone and attitude both on the part of the public and the teaching corps, as a response to the transition to the new forms of work at higher education institutions. The article was prepared using the materials of two stages of the sociological research “The opinion of teachers of Russia’s higher education institutions on distance learning during the pandemic” conducted in May, June and December 2020. The volume of sample sets made up 3431 people at the first stage, and 6006, at the second. An analysis of research data covers the following areas: organizational problems of transition to distance learning;resources used, organization of lectures and seminars, assessment of the positive and negative aspects of distance learning;perspectives, limitations and trajectories for the implementation of distance learning in Russia’s higher education institutions, as well as a set of social problems aimed at studying social well-being and assessing possible changes in the life and career of teachers. The research data are compared with the data of similar works by Russian and foreign analysts. On the basis of the analysis done and the conclusions obtained, the authors propose practical steps to optimize the work of the higher education system in stressful situations, to use distance technologies in the learning organization. Also, possible forms are considered that combine distance and full-time education, and recommendations are proposed on how to change the tone in perceiving inevitable informational and communication transformations on the part of teachers. This research was performed according to the Development program of the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Educational School of Lomonosov Moscow State University «Mathematical methods of complex systems analysis». © 2021 Moscow Polytechnic University. All rights reserved.


Global universal values and the dialog among civilizations
Natalia Smakotina, Ivan Aleshkovski, and Alexander Gasparishvili
Brill
Abstract The article explores the extent to which experts from different countries share the same axiological approaches with regard to the dialogue among civilizations and international cooperation at governmental and grass-roots levels. The article shows how subject matter experts provide collaborative input into the features and limits that shape global universal values. Interactions among civilizations promoting their equality and partnership as opposed to clashes should be at the heart of the transformations of values. Such transformations are expected to foster mutual exchange and enrichment achieved through a deeper understanding of the inevitability of increasing global interconnectedness and mutual dependence.


EDUCATIONAL TRAJECTORIES of SCHOOL GRADUATES of the RUSSIAN INDUSTRIAL REGION
I. A. Aleshkovski, A. I. Moteva, N. E. Savina, A. T. Gasparishvili, and O. V. Krukhmaleva
Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University
Introduction. The relevance of the research is accounted by the need to analyse the educational transition of youth from secondary schools to the tertiary education system and to develop a set of measures to encourage the majority of young people to stay in the region of residence and to aim at obtaining skills demanded by the local and regional labour market.The aim of the present research is to identify the educational plans of school graduates and the peculiarities of young people entering into a region’s higher education system. As indicators, the authors consider the availability of education and young people migration at the stage of transition from secondary education to higher education.The problematic situation consists in youth migration from the regions of residence to continue education in major university centers. It leads to a systemic change in the regions’ demographic situation and to the outflow of the most capable regional school leavers.Materials and research methods. The article is based on the data of the sociological study “Comprehensive Analysis of the Education System of the Kemerovo Region” conducted by the authors. A specially developed questionnaire using Google Forms platform was employed to interview the school graduates (787 ninth graders, 338 eleventh graders) and their parents (520 people). The survey covered 18 schools located in all types of settlements. At the stage of data analysis in the SPSS 25 functional environment, primary data were processed and the results were presented using descriptive statistics methods; an in-depth analysis of empirical information was carried out using multidimensional methods of analytical statistics, including the Pearson’s χ2 significance test, the procedures of factor, correlation and regression analysis (p < 0.001).Research results and scientific novelty. Long-range plans of secondary school graduates in the industrial region of Russia were identified; the motives in favour of their choice were studied; and the factors influencing this choice were revealed. As possible measures to overcome the outflow of young people from the regions, the authors propose to consider targeted training, the work with talented youth, the organisation of interaction at the level of “employer – school – university”, the various forms of network interaction of universities, as well as the modern forms of attracting students to the comfortable educational environment of the university, creating conditions not only for learning, but also for leisure, self-development, implementation of continuing education.Practical significance. The research results should be of use to specialists engaged in education studies and young people migration attitudes analysis, in labour market in Russia’s regions, to education management and regional administration officials. The research tools can be used in analysing educational migration and professional trajectories of secondary school graduates in Russia. The study is scheduled to be extended to other RF regions that are most troubled in terms of education migration, aiming to suggest possible ways to optimise this process there.


Students’ Perceptions of Quality in Higher Education and Career Choices: A Case Study of the Russian Industrial Region
Cherkas Global University Press



Forced shift to distance learning as an impetus to technological changes in the Russian higher education
N. P Narbut, I. A Aleshkovski, A. T Gasparishvili, and O. V Krukhmaleva
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
The objective request for the compliance of all spheres of life with the requirements of the information society has accelerated processes determined by the restrictive measures of the covid-19 pandemic. Almost all sectors of the economy were forced to switch to remote working; however, the education system was the most affected. The mass transition to distance learning revealed a number of challenges and contradictions in distant forms of the higher education programs and made the Russian education system respond to the challenges of the digital society. This required a deep analysis of various aspects of distance learning, readiness of all education actors to work remotely, availability of material-technical facilities, methodological support and software, and also an assessment of prospects and scenarios for the development of the Russian education system after the pandemic. In May 2020, the Center for Education Development Strategy at Lomonosov Moscow State University and the RUDN Department of Sociology, with the support of the Russian Professors Assembly, conducted a survey of the academic personnel to study universities transition to distance learning. The survey data reveled the real situation in the education system, features of the forced transition to remote working and challenges of such an educational format, and allowed to reconstruct a portrait of the teacher most skeptical to distance learning. The study helped to make a number of recommendations on improving forms and methods of learning and on developing education technologies in universities; to identify the main risks of distance education and to suggest possible forms of mixed learning in Russian universities.


Russian university students about distance learning: Assessments and opportunities
I. A. Aleshkovskiy, A. T. Gasparishvili, O. V. Krukhmaleva, N. P. Narbut, and N. E. Savina
Moscow Polytechnic University
The forced shift to remote learning in universities in March 2020 raised the complex issues of organizing lifelong learning for students, conducting academic assessments and maintaining the stability of the educational institution in general for educational systems of all countries of the world. This paper examines peculiarities and general problems of distance learning in the higher education system. It is based on the materials of the sociological survey “Opinions of Russian universities’ students on the forced distance learning”, conducted in May-June 2020. 31,423 university students in all federal subjects of Russia were interviewed. Analysis of research data covers the following areas: organizational problems of transition to distance learning; resources used, organization of lectures and seminars, assessment of the positive and negative aspects of distance learning; perspectives, limitations and trajectories of distance learning implementation in Russian universities.The article also provides comparative data on the analysis of the issues of distant learning of Russian and foreign researchers. The authors propose future-oriented measures for organizing distance learning in universities in the case of the introduction of quarantine restrictions, consider possible forms of combining distance and full-time education, the prospects for the introduction of digital technologies in the organization of training in universities.


Cultural model of the Russian identity: Axiology, semantics and communicative potential∗
, A.A. Onosov, A.T. Gasparishvili, , K. Szafraniec, and
Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
The article presents empirical data of the project aimed at the study of the migration situation in Russia. The authors describe the current value system of the Russians and hierarchy of its basic life attitudes relying on both mass survey and expert estimates on the situation in Moscow and the Moscow Region. The article provides a sociological description of the content and levels of the system of values that are most important for the Russians; identifies its structuring function for the Russians’ mass consciousness. Before focusing on the identity of the Moscow Region’s natives (as it is perceived by the Russians), the authors consider the social-cultural situation in the metropolitan agglomeration. The quantitative sociological study relied on a wide set of criteria to study the identity, which included both the respondents’ value system and their personal life attitudes. The authors believe that the cultural model of Russian identity is capable of ensuring a broader and more diverse field of social relations for a peaceful and constructive ethnic interaction of the Russians with other nations than the ethnic model. However, the cultural model of Russian identity differs from the Western model of multicultural and multiconfessional society, which has already proved its inefficiency under the contemporary crisis conditions. The value landscape of the Moscow Region’s Russian population reflects both the necessity to preserve the Russian character’s traditional features and a desire for values of civil society. The sociological data allow authors to argue that today the ethnic identity of the Russians interacts with the strengthening civic identity on the basis of relevant values and ideas and goals that unite the nation. The article aims at better understanding of the Russians’ ethnic identity and of the communicative potential of the cultural model of identity.


Factors associated with self-rated health status among university students from 26 low, middle and high income countries
Supa Pengpid, Karl Peltzer, T. Alafia Samuels, and Alexander Gasparishvili
Informa UK Limited
The aim of this study was to investigate self-reported health status and associated factors in low, middle and high income countries. Using anonymous questionnaires, data were collected in a cross-sectional survey from 19 811 undergraduate university students (mean age=20.8, SD=2.8) from 27 universities in 26 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas. Results indicate that the overall self-rated health status score was 3.0 (range 1–5). Generally, university students from study countries of the Caribbean, South America and North Africa, Near East and Central Asia had greater self-rated health status scores than students from study countries in Asia. In multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis, older age, coming from an upper middle income or high income country, higher personal control, better mental health (not having sleep problems, and having no or fewer PTSD symptoms), and having normal weight predicted better self-rated health status. Paradoxically, a poor healthy dietary score and low physical activity were also associated with better self-rated health status. In comparing self-rated health status across a large sample of students across many countries, associations were found between sociodemographic, psycho-social and health related variables and self-rated health status.


Foregoing medicines in the former Soviet Union: Changes between 2001 and 2010
Katharine Footman, Erica Richardson, Bayard Roberts, Gulzhan Alimbekova, Merab Pachulia, David Rotman, Alexander Gasparishvili, and Martin McKee
Elsevier BV



Prevalence of overweight/obesity and its associated factors among university students from 22 countries
Karl Peltzer, Supa Pengpid, T. Samuels, Neslihan Özcan, Carolina Mantilla, Onja Rahamefy, Mee Wong, and Alexander Gasparishvili
MDPI AG
Obesity among young people increases lifetime cardiovascular risk. This study assesses the prevalence of overweight/obesity and its associated factors among a random sample of university students from 22 universities in 22 low, middle income and emerging economy countries. This cross-sectional survey comprised of a self-administered questionnaire and collected anthropometric measurements. The study population was 6773 (43.2%) males and 8913 (56.8%) females, aged 16 to 30 years (mean 20.8 years, SD = 2.6). Body mass index (BMI) was used for weight status. Among men, the prevalence of underweight was 10.8%, normal weight 64.4%, overweight 18.9% and obesity 5.8%, while among women, the prevalence of underweight was 17.6%, normal weight 62.1%, overweight 14.1% and obesity 5.2%. Overall, 22% were overweight or obese (24.7% men and 19.3% women). In multivariate regression among men, younger age, coming from a higher income country, consciously avoiding fat and cholesterol, physically inactivity, current tobacco use and childhood physical abuse, and among women older age, coming from a higher income country, frequent organized religious activity, avoiding fat and cholesterol, posttraumatic stress symptoms and physical childhood abuse were associated overweight or obesity. Several gender specific risk factors identified can be utilized in health promotion programmes.


Moscow teachers on current school reformations




The status and sense of social well-being of the moscow schoolteacher
A. T. Gasparishvili, V. I. Kruzhalin, and O. V. Krukhmaleva
Informa UK Limited
Research on teachers in Moscow shows that their material circumstances tend to be better than those in the provinces, but also that collectively they have not yet formed definite opinions on recent educational reforms.


Micro-and meso-level influences on obesity in the former Soviet Union: A multi-level analysis
Kaitlyn Watson, Bayard Roberts, Clara Chow, Yevgeniy Goryakin, David Rotman, Alexander Gasparishvili, Christian Haerpfer, and Martin McKee
Oxford University Press (OUP)
BACKGROUND Limited evidence exists on obesity in the former Soviet Union (fSU), particularly its micro- and meso-level determinants. The objectives of this study were to determine age- and gender-adjusted prevalence of self-reported overweight and obesity in nine fSU countries; explore the relationship between individual and household (micro-level) factors and obesity; and explore the relationship between features of nutritional and physical environments (meso-level) and obesity. METHODS Data were collected from 18,000 adults using household surveys and from 333 communities using community profiles in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine in 2010. Individual- and community-level determinants of self-reported obesity (body mass index ≥ 30 kg/m(2)) were analysed using multi-level random intercept logistic regression models. RESULTS A total of 13% of the males and 18% of the females were categorized as obese. Factors associated with obesity in males were older age, increasing educational achievement, declining self-reported health, alcohol consumption and automobile ownership. Males who were current smokers, not married and perceived physical activity to be important were less likely to be obese. For females, obesity was associated with older age, completion of secondary-level education, declining self-reported health and average household financial situation. Unmarried women were less likely to be obese. Multi-level analysis indicated that individuals living in communities with higher presence of garbage were more likely to be obese. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study to examine both micro- and meso-level influences on obesity in fSU using multi-level analysis. Findings indicate a similar obesity risk profile to countries in Western Europe and North America.


Changes in household access to water in countries of the former Soviet Union
Bayard Roberts, Andrew Stickley, Alexander Gasparishvili, Christian Haerpfer, and Martin McKee
Oxford University Press (OUP)
BACKGROUND Evidence from the Early 2000s quantified limited coverage of household water supplies in countries of the former Soviet Union. The study objectives were to measure changes in access to piped household water in seven of these countries between 2001 and 2010 and examine how these varied by household economic status. METHODS Cross-sectional household sample surveys were conducted in 2010 in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. Data on household piped water were compared with a related 2001 study and descriptive, regression and relative risk analyses applied. RESULTS Increases in access to piped water in the home between 2001 and 2010 were recorded in urban and rural areas of all countries, except Kazakhstan. Access remains lower in rural areas. The relative risk of urban households not having piped water in 2010 compared with 2001 diminished by one-third for households with a bad/very bad economic situation [rate ratio (RR): 0.66] and by half for wealthier households (RR: 0.48). In rural areas, the declines were 15% for households with a bad/very bad economic situation (RR: 0.85) and 30% for wealthier households (RR: 0.69). CONCLUSIONS Despite encouraging increases in access to piped water, there remain significant gaps for rural and poorer households.


Moscow teachers and education reform




Russia-EU Relations, or How the Russians Really View The EU
Sergey Tumanov, Alexander Gasparishvili, and Ekaterina Romanova
Informa UK Limited
The recent history and the current state of relations between Russia and the European Union (EU) reflect the geopolitical competition between the two powers over their contested neighbourhood – Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Although prioritizing the EU as its major trade and political partner, Russia is also conscious of its strategic interests in the ‘near abroad’. While there is little discrimination in the political discourse of Russian elites in relation to the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), in reality, as popular opinion indicates, those neighbours who openly show their allegiances to the EU – Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova – have been increasingly categorized as hostile and unfriendly towards Russia. Public opinion remains strikingly congruent with and reflective of government foreign policy preferences.