57% of Americans Agree With Obama’s Sanctions Against Russia

Since the last elections, the US is in a tense geopolitical position. While future president Trump weakened the Sino-American relationship, Obama expelled Russian diplomats after the FBI alleged that Russia had interfered in the last elections.

A shift is occurring in US diplomacy. US partners and rivals are changing with the incoming political administration. Even though the UK decided to leave the European Union, the country is still seen as the best partner of the US by more than half of Americans (54%) interviewed in the last survey by ReportLinker. However, China (47%) and Russia (42%) are unsurprisingly viewed as main rivals of the US.

Russian interference in the US elections may have damaged the confidence some Americans had in Russia. According to the last survey by ReportLinker, 35% of US respondents strongly believe Russia manipulated the elections’ results, whereas 39% still have doubts about the allegations. However, opinion diverges depending on political views: unsurprisingly, Democrats more often believe US intelligence services concerning Russian influence (67%) contrary to Republicans who more often don’t believe them at all (49%).  

Divergence in opinions is similar concerning Obama’s sanctions (i.e expelling Russian diplomats): even though more than half of Americans interviewed (57%), especially Democrats,  agree with the sanctions, Republicans strongly disapprove (36%).

Tensions with Russia are likely to change with the arrival of Trump to the White House. Trump seems to have strong ties with Putin and Russia, which is scary to almost 60% of the US respondents. The latter, and especially Democrats (68%) negatively perceive the relationship between Trump and Putin/Russia. Republicans are, on the other hand, enthusiastic about this new relationship (79%).

This survey conducted by ReportLinker reached 517 online respondents representative of the US population. Interviews were conducted on  January, 3rd 2017.