The sharp polarisation between mainly western liberal democracies and the rest of the world in perceptions of Russia has been laid bare in an annual global poll of attitudes towards democracy.
Within
Europe, 55% of those surveyed for the Alliance of Democracies said they
were in favour of cutting economic ties with Russia due to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, whereas in Asia there was a majority against, and in Latin America opinion was evenly split.
Negative views of Russia are largely confined to Europe and
other liberal democracies. Positive views of Russia have been retained
in China, Indonesia, Egypt, Vietnam, Algeria, Morocco, Malaysia,
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
The annual Democracy Perception Index, carried out after the invasion of Ukraine, covers 52 highly populated countries in Asia, Latin America, the US and Europe.
Majorities
in a total of 20 countries thought economic ties with Russia should not
be cut due to the war in Ukraine. They included Greece, Kenya, Turkey,
China, Israel, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, South Africa, Vietnam,
Algeria, the Philippines, Hungary, Mexico, Thailand, Morocco, Malaysia,
Peru, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia. Colombians were evenly split.
By contrast, among the 31 countries that favoured cutting ties, 20 were in Europe.
Although
Russian diplomats will point to the findings as evidence that global
public opinion does not share western interpretations of events in
Ukraine, the level of distrust of Russia in some countries was high.
The
countries with a widely held most negative view of Russia included
Poland (net negative 87%), Ukraine (80%), Portugal (79%), Italy (65%),
UK (65%), Sweden (77%), US (62%) and Germany (62%). Even in Hungary –
whose leader Viktor Orbán is an ally of Putin – a net 32% have a
negative view of Russia. In Venezuela, often seen as propped up by
Russia, the local population has a net negative view of Russia of 36%.
Countries
with a net positive view of Russia included India (36%) Indonesia
(14%), Saudi Arabia (11 %), Algeria (29%), Morocco (4%), and Egypt (7%).
Despite
the mixed views about Russia, strong sympathy was shown for Ukraine.
Most people surveyed in Asia, Latin America and Europe thought Nato, the
US and the EU could do more to help Ukraine. In Latin America, 62% of
respondents thought Nato has done too little and only 6% too much. In
Europe 43% said Europe has done too little and 11% too much. In China,
34% said the US has done too much to help. Nearly half (46%) globally
said that the European Union, United States and Nato were doing too
little to assist Ukraine, while 11% said they are doing too much.
Negative
perceptions of China are not as widespread as for Russia. British
respondents were the most likely to want to cut economic ties with China
if it invaded Taiwan.