the new russian nationalismrespondents who selected the most negative and the most posi-
tive three answers on the intermarriage desirability scale with
Ukrainians cited roughly the same distribution of factors as most
dividing and most uniting Ukrainians and Russians – in each case,
closely matching the data reported in Figure 7.5. The exception
concerns the role of corruption. Among the 393 respondents
who strongly opposed a relative marrying a Ukrainian migrant
of similar income level, 10 per cent indicated corruption as the
greatest source of division between Russians and Ukrainians.
But among the 272 who strongly favoured a relative marrying
such a Ukrainian, the share citing corruption rose to 14 per cent.
Although this was the largest difference, it still was relatively
small, making it hard to read much social or political significance
into this variation.
Also with only one exception, stated sources of unity between
the Russians and Ukrainians were about the same among those
respondents who selected the most negative and the most positive
three answers on the Ukrainian intermarriage scale. In this case,
however, the lone exception was more significant and thought-
provoking: it concerns the idea of being neighbours. Among those
most opposed to marriage with a Ukrainian migrant of similar
income level, 27 per cent believed that being neighbours was the
greatest source of unity between Russians and Ukrainians. Among
those most favouring such a marriage, only 13 per cent held that
view. While open to multiple interpretations, this finding suggests
that the idea of being neighbours may not be as strong an argu-
ment for the Kremlin in favour of keeping Ukraine within Russia’s
sphere of influence as some may think, based on the survey results
for all respondents.
Inclusion versus expansion
As Russian respondents expressed a growing sense that their
state was strong enough to accommodate greater diversity on the
inside, and could even draw strength from this diversity, their
support for territorial expansion – which would entail incorpo-
rating diverse ethnic populations from outside the state – declined
markedly. Basically, a significant proportion of the Russian public