Russians like Trump more after his meeting with Putin

Russians became more sympathetic to US President Donald Trump after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) poll.

The sociologists pointed out that Russians are now more sympathetic to Trump personally. Positive views of the US leader now rate 27%, going up from 13% in April, while the negative assessment is down to 22% from 39% three months ago. Some 40% said they were indifferent toward the US president.

The overwhelming majority of those polled (89%) heard about the Trump-Putin meeting. Nearly a half (48%) of Russians expect that a direct conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin would benefit Russia, while only 1% talked about negative results. General improvement in the relations is also predicted by 48%, and deterioration by 2%, while 41% expect no change, Sputnik reported.

Some 32% of those polled call the relations tense, down from 42% in April, 32% consider them cool (28% in April) and 10% think they are hostile (12% in April). The number of those who view the relations as normal grew from 9% to 15%, and there was a slight increase in those voting for "good-neighborly" and "friendly" relations.