Nicole Silverio
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten explained on Tuesday that Americans’ views on Russia have grown increasingly “negative” since the beginning of the Ukraine-Russia war.
Americans’ positive views on Russia dropped from 28% to 8% between 2020 and 2024, and 61% believe the nation to be an “enemy” rather than a partner, a Gallup poll found; a total of 52% hold a “very unfavorable” view of Russia, while 32% see the country as “mostly unfavorable.” Americans’ views on both Russia and Ukraine have received increasing attention as Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for preliminary talks on ending the war in Ukraine, according to The Associated Press.
“Americans may have softened on Ukraine, but when it comes to Russia, Americans don’t trust Russia as far as they can throw them. I mean, my goodness gracious, [a] favorable view of Russia, you go back to 2020, it was 28%. 2022, it dropped to 15%,” Enten said. “In 2024, just 8% of Americans hold a favorable view of Russia. To just put this into context, about as many Americans believe that we faked the moon landing as have a favorable view of Russia. The vast majority of Americans, 61%, actually think of Russia as an enemy. Just 4% think of them as a partner. So the bottomline is, views on Russia are very, very, very negative.”
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Americans do not hold a higher opinion of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with only 9% holding a favorable view, Enten said while citing a March 2024 survey conducted by Grinnell College. Another 8% of respondents trust Putin to “do [the] right thing” relating to world affairs, according to a Pew Research poll from May 2024.
“My goodness gracious, about as many Americans believe the world is flat than have a favorable view of Vladimir Putin,” Enten said. “So when it comes to Russia and it comes to Vladimir Putin, Americans simply put ‘do not trust him or the country itself.’”
Rubio said that he and Lavrov agreed to create high level teams to further talks about ending the war in Ukraine during their meeting in Saudi Arabia, according to the AP. Rubio also said the two sides agreed to explore increasing economic cooperation as well as boosting diplomatic staffing in Washington, D.C., and Moscow.
During a Monday segment, Enten found that a growing number of Americans believe the U.S. has been overly generous to Ukraine. When the war between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022, just 7% of Americans classified the U.S.’ support for Ukraine as “too much,” but that number has since risen to 41% as of February 2025.
A slim majority of Americans, 52%, support Ukraine using U.S. weapons to fight Russia, while 43% oppose this usage, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from 2023. Republicans are evenly split, 49% to 49%, on whether they support sending U.S. weapons to Ukraine.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration devoted over $175 billion in economic and military aid to Ukraine since the war began. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly stated the war would never have happened under his leadership, said in a Feb. 12 statement that negotiations to end the war are underway following a call with Putin.
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