Image of the country and image of the people: Russians about Belarus and Belarusians

The paper presents the results of the empirical study of Russian attitudes towards Belarus in general and processes of integration of Russia and Belarus, which are the components of the country image and the nation image. It is concluded that in the views of Russian citizens there exists a positive image of Belarusians as an ethnic group, which determined by the common historical past, the propinquity of the mentality, the close family and friendship relations. The image of the country is composed of such associative categories, as views of the economic, political and geographical parameters of the country, and descriptive characteristics given by the Belarusians themselves.