Some 18% of the Moldovans communicate mainly in Russian, at a time when the Russian ethnics make up only 6% of the country’s population, shows the study “The Russian Language in New Independent States” carried out in 13 CIS states and the Baltic Countries by the International Research Agency “Euro-Asian Monitor” in cooperation with Eurasia Heritage Foundation. In Moldova, the research was coordinated by the Center for Sociological Investigations CBS-AXA, Info-Prim Neo reports. At a news conference on March 13, CBS-AXA executive director Ion Jigau said the study revealed that the situation in the analyzed states was different owing to a number of factors, especially the presence of Russian communities and the economic effect of migration. According to the cited source, the attitude towards the Russian language is more favorable in the countries in which the migration to Russia is massive. The research shows that 51% of the Moldovans speak Russian fluently and only 4% of those questioned said they do not know this language. 5% of the citizens understand Russian, but do not speak it, 19% read without difficulties, but commit mistakes in writing, while 20% can communicate in Russian but not fluently. The study also shows that 46% of the children in Moldova know Russian well and only 11% do not know it. At the same time, the ratio in Ukraine is 43%:14%. The people learn Russian to communicate with the Russian citizens and because they consider that they will need it in the future. Over 40% of those surveyed said they know Russian because they worked or are working in Russia. At the same time, most of the citizens do not want to change the status of the Russian language in Moldova. The study covered a sample of 1,125 people. A number of 15,127 people from 13 countries had been surveyed during October-November 2007 overall as part of the study.