The Russian leadership has the lowest approval rating among the world's five major powers, a new poll said Wednesday, placing the country bottom of the pile for the eighth year running.
A global median of just 22 percent of people said they approved of the way in which Russia was being run — the lowest number since records began, the U.S.-based Gallup consulting firm found.
In contrast, a median of 45 percent said they approved of the U.S. leadership, with 41 percent backing the leadership in Germany. Thirty-nine percent approved of the EU leadership, while 29 percent approved of the way in which China was run, the Gallup poll found.
The survey assessed global approval of the leadership of five major powers: Russia, China, the United States, Germany and the European Union. Data was presented by country as well as overall.
Reflecting current geopolitical tensions over the crisis in Ukraine, approval for the West was found to be particularly low in Russia as well as in its neighboring countries, such as Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Eighty-two percent of Russians voiced disapproval for the U.S. leadership, and 70 percent said they disapproved of the EU leadership — the highest figure recorded for the EU anywhere in the world.
The greatest disapproval of Russia's leadership was recorded in Northern and Central European countries, with Norway (89 percent disapproval), the Netherlands (86 percent disapproval) and Finland (86 percent disapproval) topping the list.
Russia's rating was the lowest of the five major powers since Gallup began conducting its annual poll in 2007 — approval of the Russian leadership peaked at 30 percent in 2008.
The latest poll was carried out among 1,000 people in 135 separate countries (to supply U.S., German and Russian ratings) and 136 countries (to supply China and EU ratings). The reported margin of error was no greater than 5.2 percentage points.
Contact the author at j.monaghan@imedia.ru
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