MOSCOW – The majority of Russians consider the possible interference of Russian hackers with the presidential election in the United States unlikely (25%) or even deny such an event (44%), the Public Opinion Foundation said following a poll conducted among 1,500 respondents in 104 populated localities in 53 Russian entities on June 24-25.
Fourteen percent of respondents said such interference could have happened, while 18% of those polled were undecided.
If it had emerged that Russian hackers indeed interfered with the electoral campaign in the U.S., 47% of Russians would have felt indifferent about that, 26% negative, and 18% positive.
U.S. security services earlier released the report on Russia’s interference with the electoral campaign in the U.S. by means of Russian hackers hacking websites. On June 14, the U.S. Senate approved an amendment providing for tightening the sanctions imposed on Russia and forbidding the U.S. president from mitigating or lifting them without the U.S. Congress’ approval.
Fifty-three percents of Russians are aware or heard something about the recently approved U.S. sanctions against Russia, while 45% learned about them for the first time from sociologists.
One in two (50%) Russians described relations between Russia and the U.S. as bad, and only 6% believe they are good. Another 29% consider it good in some parts and bad in others.
Respondents have no clear opinion on how Russian-U.S. relations have changed: 11% believe they have improved, 38% think they have worsened, the same number (38%) believe they remained the same, and 14% were undecided.
Three quarters of Russians (73%) are sure that the Russian leadership today should seek improvement of relations with the U.S., 16% believe the opposite, and 11% are undecided.
It was difficult for 50% respondents to determine their attitude to U.S. President Donald Trump. Twenty-four percent are positive about him, while 25% are negative. A total of 70% of Russians said that their attitude to Trump has not changed in the past six months, 12% said it has worsened, and 3% said it improved.
