Americans are evenly split as to whether Russia’s plan to control Syria’s chemical weapons will succeed. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan was met with at least some degree of optimism by 45% of Americans, yet 44% said they are pessimistic about the plan. [cont.] Art Swift, Gallup Read more »
Global Opinion of Russia Mixed
As the current chair of the G20 and host of the organization’s upcoming Leaders’ Summit, Russia has asserted itself on the world stage. Yet, in the court of public opinion, Russia gets a mixed verdict. In a global survey by the Pew Research Center, a median of just 36% among […] Read more »
Tatyana I. Zaslavskaya, founder of the All-Union Center for the Study of Public Opinion, dies at 86
Tatyana I. Zaslavskaya, an economic sociologist known for telling harsh truths about the state of the Soviet Union and a researcher whose views came to influence Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s economic policies, died on Aug. 23 in Moscow. … Ms. Zaslavskaya was a founder of the All-Union Center for the Study […] Read more »
Putin’s war on Russian civil society continues
Almost a year into the Kremlin’s war on civil society, the legal veneer looked familiar: A May 15 letter from prosecutors informed the Levada Center, Russia’s most authoritative independent polling firm, that in publicizing the results of its polls it “aimed at shaping public opinion on government policy” and was, […] Read more »
Polling Group in Russia Says It May Close
In recent years, when public opinion turned against the Kremlin, there was one main way to find out about it — the Levada Center, a respected group of sociologists who broke off their relationship with Vladimir V. Putin’s administration and set up the country’s only independent polling agency. The Levada […] Read more »
Germany Ties U.S. Again in Leadership Approval Ratings
The U.S. and Germany tied for the highest leadership approval ratings for the second straight year in 2012, with a median of 41% worldwide approving of each country’s leadership. The approval ratings of all major powers declined in 2012, and for the sixth straight year, Russia had the lowest ratings […] Read more »