Russia 'causes concern' in West says poll

According to a new poll, people in the G7 industrialized nations believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin has harmed democracy and human rights in Russia. 47% of those surveyed in Western Europe thought that Putin has had a negative effect on peace and world security and 56% believe that human rights in Russia have suffered under his presidency. But when the survey is expanded to include two dozen other countries throughout the Middle East and Asia, the view of Putin becomes more popular. In the larger sample just 37% think he has harmed human rights and only one third think Russia has made the world less secure. Most interesting were the results from China. Historically China and Russia have had tense relations, but 69% of the Chinese surveyed thought that Russia plays a positive international role.

Analysts believe that the reason Russia got higher marks from non-G7 countries is that they view Russia as a counter-balance to US dominance of world affairs.

Putin got very high marks from Russians surveyed, with support for human rights being the only category where Putin received a negative rating even making it into double-digits (12%).