The Hill
Russian leadership was highly unpopular before Ukraine invasion: Gallup
Caroline Vakil – April 15, 2022
Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, its leadership was considered highly unpopular globally, according to an analysis of Gallup surveys conducted between April 2021 and January 2022 released on Friday.
In 2021, Russian leadership had a global median approval of 33 percent compared to its global median disapproval rating of 39 percent, according to the Gallup analysis.
Gallup notes that the global median approval rating for Russian leadership was still higher than where it stood in 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, where the rating sat at 22 percent. Russian leadership had a global median disapproval rating of 36 percent during that time.
Looking specifically at global median ratings in 2021, Europe had the highest median disapproval rating of 62 percent, quickly followed by NATO countries surveyed, which sat at 57 percent.
In contrast, Africa had the highest median approval rating for Russian leadership at 42 percent, followed by the Americas at 36 percent.
However, Gallup noted that while large percentages of adults in the U.S. (60 percent), China (52 percent) and Germany (49 percent) approved of Russia’s leadership, African adults had a slightly lower approval rating, at 42 percent, in 2021.
Further breaking down the specific countries who rated Russia’s leadership, Sweden, Lithuania, Denmark and Egypt gave Russian leadership its lowest marks in 2021 — at 6 percent, 8 percent, 9 percent and 10 percent, respectively.
Among the countries who gave Russian leadership high marks were Mali (84 percent), Kyrgyzstan (76 percent), Mongolia (73 percent) and Cote d’Ivoire (71 percent).
The analysis of Gallup survey results comes amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, which has been widely condemned by the international community.
The analysis from Gallup looked at Gallup surveys conducted between April 2021 and January 2022 and included 116 countries and territories.
The margin of sampling error ranged between plus or minus 2.8 percentage points to plus or minus 5 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level, for results based on the total sample of national adults.