Analysis of Mutual Perception of Russia and Armenia

Abstract

The article presents a political and psychological study of the image of Russia in Armenia and the image of Armenia in Russia. The author set himself the goal of revealing the key features of the mutual perception of countries in the minds of their citizens at a rational and unconscious level of perception. The basis for the study was the analysis of the problematic field and the political context of the relations between the countries, which showed that in the mass consciousness of Armenia, sympathy for cooperation with Russia is fading. The research procedure consisted of conducting focused interviews and drawing tests among the inhabitants of the studied countries. For the analysis of political perception, qualitative methods with elements of quantitative ones were used. In the course of the work, the content features of the images of Russia and Armenia were described, the key political and psychological factors that influence the process of mutual perception were identified. The results of the study demonstrate the asymmetry of the mutual perception of countries: the image of Armenia among the Russian respondents looks more positive than the image of Russia among the residents of Armenia. There is a negativeization of the image of Russia in some of its structural elements (the image of power, the image of foreign policy). However, the low percentage of frankly negative images in drawing tests and the generally positive image of the people indicate that union relations have a significant reserve.