Belarus in the Mirror of the Russian Society

Abstract

Broadening knowledge of Belarus as an object of interest for the Russian society is the purpose of this paper. The Russians as a group agent is, similarly to the Belarussian society, a potential contributing factor of the socio-political changes in the post-Soviet area. Three interdependent aspects were the object of studies: a socio-cultural one, including the phenomenon of the homo sovieticus who supports Putin’s regime intentionally or non-voluntarily; economic one, including the fact that the Russians’ welfare depends directly on how much investments in Lukashenka’s regime is made, and the aspect of the country
militarization, including the readiness of the Russian society to protest against new interventions and the costs of wars. Statistical data on social and economic indicators were utilized as primary sources. The methodological approach consisted of quantitative estimation of economic indicators and qualitative analyses of sociological surveys content with the application of keywords frequency factor and contexts analyses. The conclusions are that weakening Putin is the decisive factor that can support the Belarussian society in its struggle for changing the political regime of their state. And the Russian society has a significant role to play.