SYMFEROPIL, Ukraine. Oct 1 (Interfax-AVN) - An opinion poll suggests 89% of the population of the Ukrainian autonomous region of Crimea are against Ukraine joining NATO and that 81.5% of Crimeans want the Russian Black Sea Fleet to keep its main base in the Crimean port of Sevastopol forever.
Only 7.5% of Crimeans questioned in the poll, conducted by the SOCIUM center for sociological and marketing studies on September 11-23, expressed approval of Ukraine's planned entry to NATO while 3.5% were undecided.
Just 15% of respondents wanted the Black Sea Fleet to leave Crimea in 2017 as prescribed by a Ukrainian-Russian treaty. A mere 3.5% said the fleet should pull out as soon as possible.
The survey also suggests that 51% of Crimea's population think of Crimea as a potential conflict site, that 33% do not believe so, and that 16% are undecided.
Asked whether they believed Crimea's population should have the right to dual citizenship, 78% answered in the affirmative, 19% answered in the negative, and 3% were undecided.
Asked what country they would like to be a citizen of if they were able to choose, 67% said they would like to be Russian citizens and 29% were happy to be Ukrainian, while 1.5% said they would like to be Turkish citizens, and 2.5% would like to be citizens of other countries.
SOCIUM questioned 1,478 people.