Donald Trump sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16 in Helsinki for their first one-on-one summit. In anticipation of this event, Russian pollster VCIOM asked the Russian public this week about how they viewed the American president and US-Russia relations. Though an authoritarian country, public opinion is still an important factor that the Russian government takes into account when making policy. On one hand, VCIOM’s poll shows a Russian public with rather negative views of the American president and the United States. However, the majority of Russians want ties with the United States to strengthen and a sizable portion is optimistic that US-Russian relations will improve. Dangerous Donald When asked how much they liked Donald Trump, 10 per cent of respondents had a favourable opinion as opposed to 71 per cent who had an unfavourable one. Nearly 1 in 5 had no opinion of the American president. Russians were also asked what they thought of Donald Trump. Large percentages of Russians view Donald Trump as “self-centred” (77 per cent) and “dangerous” (58 per cent). About half would characterize him as “charismatic” (49 per cent). A minority of Russians believe Trump is “strong” (34 per cent) and very few would describe him as “trustworthy” (16 per cent).
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