Interfax: Joint Poll Highlights Russians’, Americans’ Stereotypical Views of One Another

Stylized Russian and U.S. Flags with Number 200, 1807-2007

MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax) – Americans continue to conceive of Russia in the context of the Cold War and communism, and Russians mostly associate the United States with aggression and the dollar, specialists from the Romir Holding, which held a joint poll with the U.S. Leger Market Research in the fall, told Interfax on Wednesday.

A thousand city residents older than 18 were polled in each of the two countries to represent the adult population of Russia and the United States. The U.S. and Russian researchers asked their compatriots about their attitude towards state leaders and their idea of the other country.

It appeared that Americans still picture Russia in a Soviet-era context, such as communism (14%), the Cold War (11%), the USSR (5%), the KGB (2%), socialism (2%) and nuclear weapons (2%). Another 14% said that the word “Russia” immediately brought to mind Vladimir Putin.

Americans also recalled climatic and historic attributes of Russia, among them cold and snow, vodka, Matryoshka dolls, the Kremlin and Red Square. A small number of the respondents mentioned political events: the crisis in Syria, the case of Edward Snowden and homophobia, Romir said.

Russians associate America with the dollar (12%) and various symbols of freedom (12%). Ten percent of the respondents described the United States as “the evil empire”, “an impudent country acting with impunity and seeking global dominance” and the same number associated the U.S. with wars and aggression. Three percent of Russians said that the United States meant democracy.

Eight percent of the respondents recalled U.S. President Barack Obama. Hollywood, chewing gum, soda, the Big Mac, pizza, iPhones and jeans were not forgotten either.

Most Americans and Russians expressed a neutral attitude toward state leaders. Half of Americans feel neutral about Vladimir Putin and slightly more than 60% of Russians feel neutral about Obama. Eighteen percent of Russians said they felt negative about Obama, and 40% of Americans had a negative attitude towards the Russian chief of state. A fifth of Russians and a tenth of Americans said they liked the leader of the other country.

“First of all, the poll demonstrated that Russians and Americans do not know about each other,” Romir Holding President Andrei Milekhin said.

Over 20% of the American respondents had no associations with Russia at all. “Most of the rest stick to the former myths – the Cold War and confrontation. The idea Russians have about America is mostly characterized by stereotypes as well. But could it really be that nothing much has changed in the world over the past 20 years and that the USSR has simply switched its name to Russia? Or do we inform the world about the transformations that have taken place in our country incorrectly and unconvincingly?” the sociologist wondered.

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