The All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) analyzed the results of a monitoring study on the attitude of Russians to the countries of the EU and discovered a negative trend.
Numerous economic sanctions and unfriendly statements by European politicians against Russia have caused a deterioration in the attitude of Russians towards the EU countries. In recent years, the attitude of Russian citizens towards the EU countries has been quite peaceful — 55 per cent in 2018 and in 2021 reported that they generally treat them well.
However, in March of this year, the share of those who are positive about EU counties has halved: only one in five today reports that they feel good about the EU countries, while the share of those who feel bad has increased over the year from 27 per cent to 64 per cent.
Against the background of the agenda of “cancelling” Russia and Russians abroad, citizens of the country believe that the negative attitude in relations with Europeans is mutual (69 per cent of respondents are confident in the negative attitude of Europeans). This figure was 38 per cent in 2019 and 49 per cent in 2007.
In general, the optimistic opinions still remained: 18 per cent believe that Europeans are still positive towards Russians. This is close to the results received 15 years ago: then 23 per cent were confident in the positive attitude of Europeans. Moreover, in 2019, every second (51 per cent) held this opinion.
Over the past twenty-five years, the point of view on the need to expand cooperation with the West has been dominant (1997 — 82 per cent, 1999 – 84 per cent, 2018 – 74 per cent). In the current situation, the share of supporters of this course has almost halved (46 per cent).
The share of those supporting the reduction of political, cultural, and economic ties with the West, on the contrary, increased under the influence of the aggravation of relations: 39 per cent of respondents compared to 16 per cent in 2018.
Ru-Main, 11.05.2022
Source: VTsIOM
