Russians’ attitude towards the EU, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, and the UK remains predominantly negative. Attitudes towards the United States have worsened after a sharp improvement in the first half of the year, with negative assessments again exceeding positive ones. Attitudes towards the EU, the UK and Ukraine have improved slightly in recent months. Attitudes towards Germany have remained virtually unchanged for three years.
As part of the monthly survey in October, respondents were asked to express their attitudes towards some countries. Of the countries listed, the attitude towards the USA is slightly better (34% treat well/mostly well), worse towards Germany (25%), the European Union (23%), Great Britain (20%), Ukraine (20%) and Poland (19%).
[1]Since 2014, negative attitudes towards the United States have prevailed among Russians, with peaks in January 2015 (81%) and May 2024 (77%). After Donald Trump returned to the post of president of the United States and hopes for a change in policy towards Russia appeared, attitudes towards the United States began to gradually improve and reached 48% of positive responses in August 2025. However, over the past two months, attitudes towards the United States have deteriorated again: now a third of respondents treat the United States well (34%, a decrease of 14 percentage points), and 45% treat it poorly (an increase of 15 percentage points).
The worst attitudes towards the United States are held by older respondents (50% of those aged 55 and over), less well-off respondents (49% of those who can barely afford food), residents of Moscow (58%), those who believe that the country is heading in the right direction (49%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (47%), and those who trust television as a source of information (53%).
The best attitude towards the United States is held by young people under 25 (57%), respondents with higher education (38%), more affluent respondents (41% among those who can afford durable goods), residents of cities with a population of over 500,000 (38%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (40%), and those who trust Telegram channels as a source of information (52%).
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[3]Since the early 1990s, most Russians have treated Germany well. The share of Russians with a negative attitude towards Germany has been growing since 2011 and reached its peak in May 2022 – 66%. Currently, 58% of respondents have a bad attitude towards Germany (including 34% who are “very bad” and 24% who are “mostly bad”), and every fourth respondent has a good attitude towards the country (25%, including 3% who are “very good” and 22% who are “mostly good”).
Older respondents (70%), Muscovites (75%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (66%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (62%), and those who trust television as a source of information (69%) have a more negative attitude towards Germany than others.
The best attitudes towards Germany are held by young people under 25 (48%), more affluent respondents (28% of those who can afford durable goods), residents of cities with a population of 100,000 to 500,000 (29%), those who believe that the country is on the wrong track (34%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (38%), and those who trust Telegram channels as a source of information (40%).
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[5]Attitudes towards the European Union worsened in 2023 and 2024, but the opposite trend has been recorded over the past year: the share of those who have a negative attitude towards the EU has decreased to 58% (a decrease of 13 percentage points since September 2024), and the share of those who have a positive attitude towards the EU has increased to 23% (an increase of 7 percentage points since September 2024 year).
The worst opinion of the European Union is held by older respondents (68% of those aged 55 and over), residents of Moscow (79%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (64%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (62%), and those who trust television as a source of information (67%).
The best attitude towards the European Union is held by young people under 25 (44%), residents of cities with a population of 100,000 to 500,000 (26%), those who believe that the country is on the wrong track (30%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (35%), and those who trust Telegram channels as a source of information (36%).
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[7]Over the past year, the attitude of Russians towards Ukraine has also improved – the proportion of respondents who feel good about this country has increased to 20% (an increase of 6 percentage points since May 2025), 63% of respondents have a negative attitude towards Ukraine, this proportion of respondents has decreased by 11 percentage points over the past six months.
Muscovites (88%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (69%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (67%), and those who trust television as a source of information (73%) have a more negative attitude towards Ukraine than others.
The best attitude towards Ukraine is held by residents of cities with a population of 100,000 to 500,000 (23%), those who believe that the country is on the wrong track (26%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (33%), and those who trust Telegram channels, social media and internet media as a source of information (25%, 25% and 25% respectively).
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[9]Attitudes towards the UK are gradually recovering after a sharp deterioration in the spring of 2022: in October 2025, one in five treated the UK well (20%, an increase of 5 percentage points since May 2022), 62% treated it poorly (a decrease of 9 percentage points since May 2022).
The worst opinion of the UK is held by men (67%), older respondents (73% of those aged 55 and over), residents of Moscow (83%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (69%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (65%), and those who trust television as a source of information (70%).
The best attitudes towards the UK are held by women (22%), young people under 25 (40%), those who believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction (28%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (30%), and those who trust Telegram channels as a source of information (37%).
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[11]Attitudes towards Poland are also slowly normalizing – the share of those who treat this country poorly has decreased to 63% from 74% in May 2024, and the share of those who treat it well to 19% from 16% in May 2024.
The worst opinion of Poland is held by men (69%), older respondents (77% of those aged 55 and over), residents of Moscow (85%), those who believe that the country is moving in the right direction (72%), those who approve of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (67%), and those who trust television as a source of information (72%).
The best attitude towards Poland is shown by young people under 25 (34%), well-off respondents (21% among those who can afford durable goods), residents of cities with a population of over 500,000 (24%), those who believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction (26%), those who disapprove of Vladimir Putin’s performance as president (30%), and those who trust Telegram channels as a source of information (30%).
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[13]METHODOLOGY
The all-Russian Levada Center survey was conducted on October 28 to November 6, 2025, based on a representative All-Russian sample of urban and rural populations of 1,606 people aged 18 and older in 137 localities and 50 subjects 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 [14] about the methodology