The majority of Russians have a positive attitude towards the talks between the presidents of Russia and the United States in Alaska. One in two believes that this meeting will help end the conflict in Ukraine and have a positive impact on relations between the two countries. Attitudes towards the United States continue to improve rapidly; today, less than a third of respondents have a negative attitude towards United States. About half of Russians rate the current relations between Russia and the United States as negative, but the share of positive assessments is growing. Today, the attitude towards the United States in Russia has returned to its before-2014 levels.
On August 15, negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President D. Trump took place at a military base in the United States. The majority of Russians have a positive attitude towards these negotiations – 79% (including 38% – “definitely positive”, and 41% – “rather positive”). 8% of the respondents have a negative attitude towards the meeting of the two presidents.
The proportion of those who view the negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump positively is higher among those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (87%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (84%), those who trust online publications (85%) and television (87%) as sources of information, those who believe that the recent talks will help end the conflict in Ukraine (94%), those who believe that relations between the countries will improve after the talks (94%), those who have a favourable opinion of the United States (88%), and those who support the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine (85%).
The proportion of those who have a negative attitude towards the negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump is higher among those who believe that the country is on the wrong track (21%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (23%), those who trust YouTube channels as a source of information (16%), those who believe that the recent talks will not help to end the conflict in Ukraine (18%), those who believe that relations between the countries will deteriorate after the talks (40%), those who have a negative attitude towards the US (15%), and those who do not support the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine (16%).
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[2]There is no clear opinion in society about the possible impact of the negotiations on ending the military conflict in Ukraine: about half of the respondents are optimistic about this issue (53%), and four out of ten respondents are pessimistic (37%).
Those who believe that the recent negotiations will help end the Ukrainian conflict are most likely to be young people under the age of 24 (67%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (59%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (57%), those who believe that relations between the countries will improve after the negotiations (76%), those who have a favourable opinion of the United States (67%), those who support the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine (55%), and those who believe that it is now time to move on to peace negotiations (57%).
Those who believe that the recent negotiations will not help to end the Ukrainian conflict are most likely to be respondents aged 40-54 (41%) and those over 55 (39%), those who believe that the country is on the wrong track (61%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (65%), those who trust YouTube channels as a source of information (45%), those who believe that relations between the countries will deteriorate after the negotiations (79%), those who have a negative attitude towards the United States (53%), those who do not support the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine (45%), and those who believe that military action should continue at this time (47%).
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[4]Also, about half of the respondents (51%) believe that the negotiations should help improve relations between Russia and the United States, four out of ten respondents think that this meeting will not affect relations between the countries in any way, and 3% of respondents believe that relations will only worsen after it. The share of Russians expecting an improvement in relations between Russia and the United States is higher today than after the meeting of the leaders of the two countries in Helsinki in July 2018.
Those who believe that relations between Russia and the United States will improve after the meeting between the two presidents are most likely to be young people under the age of 24 (59%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (57%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (54%), those who trust television as a source of information (59%), those who believe that the recent talks will help end the conflict in Ukraine (73%), those who have a favourable opinion of the United States (67%), and those who support the actions of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine (54%).
Those who believe that relations between Russia and the United States will not change after the meeting between the two presidents are most common among respondents aged 25-39 and 40-54 (39% each), those who believe that the country is on the wrong track (50%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (51%), those who trust YouTube channels as a source of information (56%), those who believe that the talks will not help to end the conflict in Ukraine (61%), those who have a negative attitude towards the United States (53%), and those who do not support the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine (41%).
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[6]Against the background of peace talks and a face-to-face meeting between the two presidents, attitudes towards the United States continue to improve: positive ratings have reached 48%, while negative ratings have dropped to 30%.
Young people under the age of 24 (69%), respondents with higher education (53%), more affluent respondents (53% among those who can afford durable goods), those who believe that things in the country are going in the right direction (51%), those who Those who believe that the negotiations will help end the conflict in Ukraine (61%), those who believe that relations between the countries will improve after the negotiations (62%), those who do not support the actions of the Russian military in Ukraine (56%), those who believe that now it is necessary to move to peaceful negotiations (53%).
Respondents aged 40-54 (35%), residents of Moscow (38%), those who believe that things in the country are going the wrong way (39%), those who believe that relations between the countries will worsen after negotiations (58%), those who He believes that military actions should be continued now (44%).
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[8]About half of the respondents rate the current relations between Russia and the United States negatively (cool, tense, hostile), but their share has decreased by 32 percentage points; a third of respondents characterize relations as normal and calm (29%, an increase of 21 percentage points since May 2021), 13% of respondents positively assess relations between the countries (an increase of 12 percentage points since October 2015).
Most often, young people under the age of 24 (20%) assess relations between Russia and the United States as friendly and good, respondents with secondary education and below (17%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (14%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (14%), and those who trust television and social media as sources of information (17% each).
Young people under the age of 24 (42%) are more likely than others to assess relations between Russia and the United States as normal and calm, respondents with secondary education or lower (32%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (31%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (30%), and those who trust television as a source of information (33%).
Respondents with higher education (61%) are more likely than others to assess relations between Russia and the United States as cool, tense, or hostile. those who believe that the country is on the wrong track (64%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (68%), and those who trust Telegram and YouTube channels as sources of information (64% each).
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[10]METHODOLOGY
The survey by the Levada Center was conducted August 19 – 27 2025, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample consisted of 1613 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The distribution of responses is given as a percentage of the total number. The data set is weighted by gender, age, level of education for each type of settlement (large cities, medium cities, small towns, villages) within each Federal district independently, in accordance with Rosstat data.
The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for indicators around 50%
2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%
2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%
1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%
Learn more [11] about the methodology