The share of Russians who view the United States positively has more than doubled in the past year and a half, according to an independent Levada Center polling agency survey published Tuesday.
Only 20% of Russians polled by Levada in May 2018 said they viewed the U.S. favorably. That year, they named the U.S. as Russia’s biggest adversary as relations dipped to historic lows amid claims of a Kremlin-backed campaign to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
In Levada’s most recent survey, 47% of Russian respondents said they had a favorable opinion of the U.S.
The share of Russians who saw the U.S. in a negative light subsequently dropped from 69% in May 2018 to 41% in November 2019, Levada said.
Russians’ favorable view of the European Union has also nearly doubled in that period, the polling agency said.
The share of Russian respondents with a favorable opinion of the EU increased from 28% in May 2018 to 52% in November 2019, Levada said. The share of Russians who saw the EU in a negative light dropped from 55% to 34%.
Meanwhile, 64% of Americans viewed Russia negatively compared to 21% who viewed it positively, according to Pew Research Center figures published last year. It found that a median of 54% of respondents across 25 countries viewed Russia unfavorably compared to 34% who viewed Russia favorably.
Levada conducted the survey among 1,616 respondents in 50 Russian regions between Nov. 21 and Nov. 27.
