As Ukraine becomes a cradle of creativity to ridicule Russian President Vladimir Putin, this poll explains why. Some 41 percent of Ukrainians say they hate Putin, while 34 percent say they despise the Russian leader, according to a GfK-Ukraine poll released on Oct. 14. Another 20 percent of Ukrainians say they are annoyed with the Russian president.
In the meantime, Putin’s popularity at home skyrocketed after Russian annexation of Crimea peninsula in March this year. In September Putin’s approval ratings hit the highest level since 2000 — with some 86 percent, according to the Levada Center pollster survey.
In Ukraine, on the flipside, only six percent of the respondents said they respect the Russian president, while in 2013 at least 47 percent of Ukrainians had positive attitudes towards Putin. Young people aged 16-19 and those over 60 turned out to be the most active antagonists of Putin.
At least 3 percent of Ukrainians say they fear the Russian president. Some 15 percent of the respondents said they are indifferent to Putin, but the share was much higher in the east and south of the country, where 24 percent said they were indifferent. Some 20 percent in those regions also said they respected Putin.
There are also those who like Putin, but they only account 4 percent in Ukraine, according to GfK-Ukraine’s findings.
It looks like now Ukrainians have other favorites. Belarussian President Oleksandr Lukashenko tops the list of Ukrainians’ favorite leaders. He is liked by 62 percent of Ukrainians, according to the Rating sociological group findings published on Sept. 23. American President Barack Obama goes second with at least 54 percent of Ukrainians who favor him.
GfK-Ukraine’s poll was conducted nationwide on Sept. 4-18. A sample of 1,000 Ukrainians was polled. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]
