Mainstream anti-Russian hysteria is slowly working poll shows

Only North Korea and Iran are considered less friendly than Russia, with only 2 percent of US voters saying they consider these countries to be allies of the US.

According to a Politico/Morning Consult poll, only 5 percent of US voters said they considered Russia a “friend” of the United States, while 21 percent said the country was “friendly but not an ally”.

US voters’ views on Russia have become more negative, sinking to their lowest point of Donald Trump’s presidency, with much of the decline becoming evident after special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment in May 2017 to investigate alleged “Russian meddling” in the 2016 election.

As the House Intelligence Committee has concluded, there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump Campaign. As many are now finding out, however, there was tremendous leaking, lying and corruption at the highest levels of the FBI, Justice & State. #DrainTheSwamp

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2018

Robert Mueller “hasn’t uttered one word in public about his Russia investigation in the year since he was appointed special counsel” Associated Press reported, while the fall-out of the never-ending “investigation” has been a propaganda success against Russia.

But it has been a low-simmering success. In December 2017, a poll conducted by the AP and NORC at the University of Chicago found that the Russia investigation ranked at the bottom of issues important to most Americans, well behind topics like the economy, taxes and health care.

Only twenty percent of registered US voters in a Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted March 29 to April 1 said Russia was an ally or “friendly but not an ally” compared to 64 percent who rated the former Cold War adversary as unfriendly or an enemy. That figure is the latest in a series of surveys showing a decline in positive sentiment towards Russia among US voters.

A poll conducted immediately following Mueller’s May 17 appointment found that 36 percent of voters rated Russia as an ally or friendly, compared to 48 percent who said it was unfriendly or an enemy. A 49 percent plurality of GOP respondents at the time said it was an ally or friendly, while 37 percent said it was unfriendly or an enemy.

“Since then, the biggest shift among voters overall has been with Republicans, with a net decline in positive sentiment of 42 percentage points. In the most recent poll, 28 percent of Republicans viewed Russia positively, while 58 percent described it as unfriendly or an enemy,” Morning Consult noted.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from the pollsters.

In contrast, a survey that interviewed 1 993 registered voters on European nations between May 17 and May 22 with a margin of error of 2 percent, showed a constant.

Views on France, Germany and the UK had remained the same among US voters, with 55 percent, 42 percent and 65 percent, respectively, saying they considered these countries as friends.

Heather A. Conley, senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia and the Arctic at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump has sent mixed signals on Russia.

Even though he signed the National Security Strategy that lists Russia as a rival and recently expelled 60 Russian diplomats, Trump has dodged questions about whether he views Russian President Vladimir Putin as a friend or foe.

The distrust between the US and Russia seems to be mutual. The Russian Foreign Ministry has been collecting information on Washington’s meddling in Russia’s internal affairs, TASS reported.

“The focus of this struggle will center on the information space. Information warfare will grow far bitterer,” Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said. According to Ryabkov, Washington, more than others, interferes in Russia’s internal affairs through various channels and in various forms.