Most of Russians assess the relations between the U.S. and Russia as normal. However, over the recent year the number of those who assess the relations as being chilly or even tense has increased.
MOSCOW, September 13, 2011. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the data concerning the attitudes of Russians towards the United States, as well as how they perceive U.S.-Russia relations.
The attitudes of Russians toward the U.S. have almost not changed over the recent year: 55% have positive attitudes (they were 59% in May of the previous year), 29% have negative attitudes. Those who perceive the U.S. positively are mainly Muscovites and St.Petersburgians (63%), supporters of the Fair Russia (65%), United Russia (63%) parties, middle-aged and young Russians (58-61%) and those with high level of education (59%). Those who have negative attitudes are basically residents of big cities (33%), CPRF supporters (42%), elderly respondents (34%) and those with low level of education (35%).
Today Russian-American relations are assessed positively by most of respondents (60%): 42% call them normal, 16% - good, 6% - friendly. Thirty-six percent of respondents think that the cooperation between U.S. and Russia is negative: 24% call the relations between the two countries chilly, 10% - tense, 2% - hostile. Compared to the previous year, the assessment of the relations between Russia and the United States has decreased: the share of those who call the relations chilly has increased form 17 to 24%, those who call them tense - from 5 to 10%.
Those who assess the relations between Russia and the U.S. as being positive are adherents of the Fair Russia and United Russia parties (65 and 69% respectively). They are opposed by the adherents of CPRF (47%) and LDPR (44%) parties.
The initiative Russian opinion polls were conducted on September 3-4, 2011. 1600 respondents were interviewed at 138 sampling points in 46 regions of Russia. The margin of error does not exceed 3.4%.
What is your general attitude towards the United States? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||||
| 1991 | 1998 | 2003 | June 2008 | September 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
Very good | 29 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
Generally good | 54 | 61 | 43 | 47 | 21 | 43 | 54 | 52 |
Generally bad | 3 | 18 | 26 | 23 | 40 | 25 | 22 | 22 |
Very bad | 1 | 6 | 14 | 6 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
Hard to tell | 12 | 1 | 12 | 22 | 13 | 22 | 15 | 17 |
How would you assess the relations between Russia and the United States of America today? (close-ended question, one answer) | ||||||||||
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | February 2008 | June 2008 | September 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
Friendly relations | 3 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 6 |
Good neighborly relations | 12 | 10 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 9 | 16 | 12 |
Normal, calm relations | 29 | 47 | 36 | 38 | 36 | 41 | 14 | 37 | 46 | 42 |
Chilly relations | 31 | 22 | 24 | 22 | 26 | 27 | 29 | 26 | 17 | 24 |
Tense relations | 17 | 7 | 13 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 37 | 13 | 5 | 10 |
Hostile relations | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Hard to tell | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 4 |
Note: Using materials from the site www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory!