Arab Public Attitudes towards Russia

صورة توضيحية

This paper seeks to understand trends in Arab public attitudes towards Russian involvement in a number of issues of concern to the Arab region, based on opinion poll findings. The paper also explores Russian foreign policy aims towards the region, as perceived by survey respondents. In general, Arab public attitudes towards Russia are shown to be broadly negative, with roughly one half of respondents describing their views of Russia as “negative” or “negative to some extent”, in addition to 32% whose views were neutral or who declined to answer the question. Respondents with positive views of Russia clustered around specific countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan and Lebanon. In contrast, Syrian refugees, Iraqis, Yemenis, Jordanians, Kuwaitis, Saudi Arabians and Libyans were the most vociferously opposed to Russia.

Download Article Download Issue Subscribe for a year

Abstract

Zoom

This paper seeks to understand trends in Arab public attitudes towards Russian involvement in a number of issues of concern to the Arab region, based on opinion poll findings. The paper also explores Russian foreign policy aims towards the region, as perceived by survey respondents. In general, Arab public attitudes towards Russia are shown to be broadly negative, with roughly one half of respondents describing their views of Russia as “negative” or “negative to some extent”, in addition to 32% whose views were neutral or who declined to answer the question. Respondents with positive views of Russia clustered around specific countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan and Lebanon. In contrast, Syrian refugees, Iraqis, Yemenis, Jordanians, Kuwaitis, Saudi Arabians and Libyans were the most vociferously opposed to Russia.

References