Russians gained optimism from the July 7 bilateral talks between Russian and US presidents, and some now have a brighter view of the US leader himself, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) poll found Thursday.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The sociologists pointed out that Russians are now more sympathetic to Trump personally. Positive views of the US leader now rate 27 percent, going up from 13 percent in April, while the negative assessment is down to 22 percent from 39 percent three months ago. Some 40 percent said they were indifferent toward the US president.
The overwhelming majority of those polled, or 89 percent, heard about the Trump-Putin meeting, though respondents above the age of 35 were better informed and one in every five people in the 18-34 age group heard about it for the first time during the poll.
“Nearly a half (48 percent) of Russians expect that a direct conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin would benefit Russia, while only 1 percent talked about negative results. General improvement in the relations is also predicted by 48 percent, and deterioration by 2 percent, while 41 percent expect no change,” the report on the poll, seen by Sputnik, said.
The US-Russian relations index, which may amount minus 100 to plus 100 and grows if the respondents think the relations are better, has also gone up.
“After the meeting between the Russian and US leaders bilateral relations are rated higher than a few months ago: the relevant index grew to minus 52 from minus 68 in April, though negative estimates still dominate,” the poll results breakdown by VCIOM noted.
Some 32 percent of those polled call the relations tense, down from 42 percent in April, 32 percent consider them cool (28 percent in April) and 10 percent think they are hostile (12 percent in April). The number of those who view the relations as normal grew from 9 percent to 15 percent, and there was a slight increase in those voting for “good-neighborly” and “friendly” relations.
Out of the issues that the two leaders discussed on the G20 sidelines in Germany, Russians recalled Syria — 33 percent, Ukraine — 24 percent, bilateral relations — 13 percent and fight against terror — 7 percent.