The number of Russians who believe that Germany is unfriendly toward Russia has almost doubled over the past 13 years, a poll conducted by the Moscow-based Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) showed on Friday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2018) The number of Russians who believe that Germany is unfriendly toward Russia has almost doubled over the past 13 years, a poll conducted by the Moscow-based Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) showed on Friday.
Survey respondents were asked whether they viewed Germany as a friendly or an unfriendly state with respect to Russia. In 2005, as many as 70 percent of Russians considered Germany a friendly country, while currently, only 44 percent have this view. According to the most recent poll, the number of Russians who believe that Germany has an unfriendly attitude toward Russia currently totals 29 percent, compared to only 15 percent in 2005.
Meanwhile, 32 percent of Russians believed that the attitude of German citizens toward Russia remained positive, while the number of Russians who felt the opposite increased from 12 percent to 16 percent in the corresponding period.
The number of respondents who felt that Germany played a positive role in the world dropped significantly from 67 percent in 2005 to 39 percent in 2018.
The FOM poll was conducted among 1,500 Russian citizens in the country's 53 Federal subjects on September 8-9.
The relations between Moscow and Western states, including Germany, deteriorated over situation in Ukraine and Crimea's rejoining Russia. The West imposed sanctions against Russia over its alleged interference in the Ukrainian conflict. In turn, Moscow responded by imposing a trade embargo against the EU countries. Since then the Russian authorities have repeatedly stated that the use of sanctions against the country is counterproductive.
