MOSCOW, April 15, 2021. Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the data of a survey describing how Russians assess the recent presidential election in the U.S. and what kind of president they think Joe Biden will be.

Most of Russians were interested in the 2020 U.S. presidential elections (64%); remarkably, 12% were following closely the electoral campaign (often metropolitan residents — 22%).

More than half of Russians could hardly call the recent elections free and democratic (55%). Twelve percent of Russians disagree with them: they are basically young Russians aged 18-24 (21%) saying that it was an open and fair political competition.

If given an opportunity, Russians would have refused to take part in those elections (70%). Those respondents who say they would have taken part would have voted for Donald Trump (12%) rather than Joe Biden (7%).

Almost half of Russians failed to answer when asked what kind of president Joe Biden would be for his country (44%). Russians often expect the Biden’s presidency to be negative or “mediocre” (18% and 28, respectively); every tenth (10%) tends to think that he will be a good president.

The presidency of Joe Biden will likely to have no impact on the Russia-US relations, according to 53% of respondents. Those who forecast changes often expect deterioration (20%) rather than improvement (12%).

Russian nationwide VCIOM-Sputnik survey was conducted on January 27, 2021. A total of 1,600 of Russians aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Results are based on telephone interviews. Stratified dual-frame random sample based on a complete list of Russian landline and mobile phone numbers was used. The data were weighted according to selection probability and social and 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.