MOSCOW, 18 March 2025. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey about Russian perceptions of the U.S. elite community.

 Demand for meritocracy

In a survey conducted by VCIOM Russians were asked about what people represent the society’s elite, in what way they are different from others, what qualities they possess. A variety of answers can be grouped according to the theory of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu who viewed social relations as a process of distribution of different forms of capital – economic, cultural, social and symbolic.   

According to most of Russian, the resources elites possess refer largely to cultural capital:  education, knowledge, belonging to certain professions (43% in total). This is followed by resources related to symbolic capital: working for the country’s good, having positive personal traits, success, ability to impact people’s minds, being a role model (30% in total).

Resources related to economic capital (wealth, property, having several companies, etc.) and social capital (status, power, positions) were less mentioned (21% and 18%, respectively).  

Thus, many Russians view the elite as a group of the most respectable persons: well-educated, competent, having positive personal traits and good reputation.

However, perceptions of the American elite are different: 38% of respondents say that you need to have money to become elite in the U.S.; 25%, point out connections. Examples, such as Donald Trump and Elon Musk, probably reinforce such perceptions.

Sixteen percent of respondents say that you need to possess certain skills to become part of the elite. This means there is a discrepancy is between normative ideas about the elite as a whole and what is observed in the U.S.

President, Great Engineer and Hillbilly

More than half of Russians (53%) could name people who they consider to be American elite without prompting. The top three leaders are:

Donald Trump (38%), the forty-fifth and the forty-seventh American president, the one who humbly calls himself the most successful leader in the American history. During the first six weeks of his new term, he revoked a record number of the decrees signed by his predecessor and issued numerous executive actions without congressional approval. That might be what right-wing thinkers (Kevin Slack, Nick Land, Curtis Yarvin) awaiting the arrival of a “Red Caesar” (the color of the Republican party) wrote about. Or is it a “revolution of common sense”, according to Trump and his supporters? The whole world will have the opportunity to evaluate it over the next four years.

Elon Musk (31%), who is called the most influential person in history (among those who were not elected by anyone). His grandfather, Joshua Haldeman, moved his family from the U.S.A. to Canada, and then to South Africa. In addition, he supported technocratic views popular in the 1930s and considered that all the countries of North America should unite under the leadership of the “Great Engineer”. Is the grandson striving to implement the utopia? Remarkably, 41% of Russians who get information from the Internet consider Musk as part of the American elite (the same percentage pointed out the president). 

JD Vance (6%). It took nine years for the author of "Hillbilly Elegy” to go from publishing his memoir to being elected Vice President of the United States. Based on its plot about the implementation of the American dream, a movie starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams was made. Will there be a continuation?

In contrast to this triad the Bidens (4%), Barack Obama (3%), and even Bill Gates, the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds (2%, each) seem to be characters from a bygone past.

Selfish, cynical and rich

The majority of Russians assess the American elite critically:

• 48% consider that the American elite community pursue their personal interest; 32%, the interest of their country.
• 54% believe that the elite hides behind freedom and democracy; 21% say they share those values.

A big part of Russians (39%) has unfavorable perceptions of the American elite for both criteria.

AUTHOR: Igor Gavrilov

Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted March 1, 2025. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interview, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of 1 March 2025: cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7425; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0243; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1131. Calculations are based on corporate standard https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

 ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.