Russians More Than Twice As Likely to Hold Favorable Views of Americans Than 18 Months Ago, Says Poll

Although President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says relations between Moscow and Washington are "harsh and cold," it seems that pessimistic view is not shared by the average Russian citizen, according to a new survey.

A day after Dmitry Peskov's gloomy assessment of political ties between the two countries, a poll by the Moscow-based independent research organization, the Levada Center, found the most Russians think favorably of Americans.

When Russians were asked the question "On the whole, what is your current attitude towards the United States of America?" a total of 47 percent replied they had a favorable opinion.

This figure comprised of 40 percent who felt "generally positive" about the U.S. and 7 percent felt "very positive."

This was up considerably from the Levada Center poll in May 2018, in which a total of 20 percent of Russians had a favorable view of the U.S. This figure consisted of two percent who had a "very positive" and 18 percent who had a "generally positive" view.

Back then, Russia and its officials were facing sanctions over claims of interference in the 2016 election and the Russian annexation of Crimea.

The latest Levada survey, published on Tuesday and carried out between November 21 and 27, also showed that the total of Russians who held a negative opinion of the U.S. had gone down from 69 percent in May 2018 to 41 percent in November 2019.

The survey carried out on 1616 people from regions across the country had a statistical error of 2.9 percent. Newsweek has contacted the Levada Center for comment.

In February, a Gallup poll found that Russia's negative image among Americans had worsened with 52 percent of respondents considering the military power of Russia a "critical threat" to U.S. vital interests.

This was up from 39 percent from the previous survey in 2016 and up from 18 percent in the first poll in 2004, according to Gallup.

Last week, President Donald Trump met Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at the White House. Peskov told Russia's Channel One regarding bilateral relations that even with such a "heavyweight minister as Lavrov ... I don't think there are any grounds for optimism."

However, Peskov did note that Putin and Trump got on well personally and praised Trump's "very warm" approach to Putin.

This week, the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned that the White House administration needed to come to a new agreement with Russia on arms control, after the countries pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) Treaty, with each side blaming the other.

Gorbachev told the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun he still believed a thaw in U.S.-Russia ties was "still within our capabilities."