A majority of Russian respondents hold favorable views toward China, a recent survey found.
Why it matters: Russia is deepening its economic and diplomatic ties with China as the two nations draw closer together, bound in part by their shared animus toward Washington.
Driving the news: The Chinese and Russian foreign ministers met today and jointly criticized the new human rights sanctions the EU levied on both countries yesterday.
Details: In a joint survey conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Levada Analytical Center published on March 10, pollsters found 74% of Russian respondents have positive views toward China.
- By contrast, just 45% expressed a favorable view towards the EU, and 39% had a favorable view of the U.S.
- 56% of Russian respondents said growing Russian ties to China did not increase their country's dependence on Beijing.
The bottom line: "Russian President Putin’s reorientation away from the West and toward Beijing in the aftermath of the 2014 Crimea annexation seems to have been accepted, if not embraced, by the Russian public," the survey authors write.