Almost one-third of Russians, or 29%, think that US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's victory in the November elections will lead to the improvement in relations between the two countries, a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) showed Friday.
Only 4% of respondents could see better Russia-US ties in case of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's presidency.
A total of 8% of Russians believe that Trump as a US president will make matters worse, as opposed to 45% who believe in further deterioration of Moscow-Washington ties in case Clinton wins the election.
Almost every third Russian, 35%, thinks that Trump's victory would be better for Russia's national interests. Clinton found support of only 6% of respondents in this respect. 22% think that neither of the nominees is good for Russia's interests.
Over half of Russians, or 52%, believe that the age of the US presidential rivals' shows that the US elections system is growing unstable. A total of 23% disagree.
VTsIOM’s Director General Valery Fyodorov said that due to a sharp confrontation between Moscow and Washington, Russian citizens predictably choose the candidate, which publicly expresses sympathies to Vladimir Putin and promises to agree with Russia on key points of disagreement.
US citizens are set to elect a new president on November 8, with Barack Obama's successor being inaugurated on January 20, 2017.
The survey was conducted among 1600 people in 130 population centers on October 8-9.
The director of the Center for Political Information, Alexei Mukhin, speaking with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted in the first place that the interest of Russian citizens in the upcoming US presidential elections is due to the fact that this topic is being actively discussed in the expert community and the media. "Most likely, they are just curious, rather than waiting for some kind of political change," the expert said.
In addition, he doubted that Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections will improve the US-Russian relations. According to the expert, a US President has no significance for Russia, because, as a rule, he does not play a key role in the formation of foreign policy. "The US policy is formed by oligarchs and groups of influence, including the Pentagon. In the course of this 'dirty' campaign the figure of the future US president will be greatly devalued in the political sense because of mutual flows of compromising. Whoever becomes a president, there will be a desacralization of the presidential power," he noted.
At the same the time director of the Center for Political Information pointed out that the US president will be an obviously weak figure. "And since the interests of the US in the near future are more or less formed, then we should not expect any changes. Maybe if Trump is elected, there will be some rhetoric changes, that's all," Alexei Mukhin concluded.
