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Barack Obama – president of 42% of Russians

Most pollsters, who share this opinion, live in Moscow and St. Petersburg and mainly consider themselves as the supporters of A Just Russia and non-parliamentary parties

A probable victory of incumbent US President Barack Obama at forthcoming US presidential elections meets the Russian national interests more than a victory of Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Some 42% of Russians has this opinion according to the results of a sociological survey of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM). The experts noted a decline in the anti-US rhetoric in the Russian society and explain Obama’s popularity with the reset in US-Russian relations that the latter initiated, the Kommersant daily reported.

The results of the sociological survey (it was held on October 15-16 among 1,600 people in 46 Russian regions) showed that most respondents (42%) are convinced that Barack Obama’s victory at the US presidential elections meets the Russian national interests more than that of Mitt Romney, the newspaper noted. Most pollsters, who share this opinion, live in Moscow and St. Petersburg and mainly consider themselves as the supporters of A Just Russia and non-parliamentary parties. Meanwhile, only four percent of respondents find Mitt Romney’s electoral success favourable for the country. Another third of Russian citizens stated that “this does not matter of Russia” which candidate will win the US presidential elections, and each fifth respondent could not answer this question.

VCIOM Director General Valery Fedorov explained to the Kommersant daily that the results of the survey were caused by the fact that Barack Obama is taken in the mass public opinion positively, “He initiated the resetting of relations, shows his friendly intentions and the readiness to work with Russia in every possible way.” Meanwhile, the expert acknowledged that Russian citizens generally do not feel “any special love” to the United States, but most Russians easily support “positive proposals.” According to Fedorov, on the contrary, Mitt Romney “says that Russia is the main rival of the US.” “In this sense he inherited some features of former US President George W. Bush, who embodied the stereotypes of the Soviet propaganda: a capitalistic vandal, world gendarme, who is stifling everything. Russia did not like him very much,” the VCIOM head noted. “When Obama was elected after him, everybody gave a sigh of relief. But now this imperialistic hydra was seen in Mormon Romney, and no one wants to feel the wind of Bush’s epoch again,” he remarked.

Head of the International Institute of Political Expertise Yevgeny Minchenko explained Obama’s popularity by the fact that “the Russians do not know well the US presidential elections” and “the level of Obama’s popularity is incomparable with Romney’s popularity.” “The resetting was actively promoted in our country, and at least the tonality has changed sharply as compared with the times of Bush’s rule,” the expert believes.

Minchenko also noted that “recently the level of the anti-US rhetoric fell sharply in the official propaganda.” “This was a time-serving political strategic trick before the presidential elections in Russia, but now it is not needed any more,” he underlined.