Despite criticizing 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for calling Russia one of America’s greatest geopolitical foes, a plurality of Democrats now support taking a “harder line” against Russia, while a majority of Republicans support creating “friendlier relations” with the former Soviet Union.
In a newly released poll, YouGov asked 1,000 Americans their opinions of Russia in light of the WikiLeaks scandals.
The poll found that while a plurality of Americans are “not sure” (49 percent) who is responsible for the “hacking” of Podesta’s emails, half of Democrats are positive “Russia was responsible” (50 percent).
In contrast, only 25 percent of all Americans, 18 percent of Independents, and nine percent of Republicans blame Russia for WikiLeaks.
Asked, “Do you think that the United States should take a harder line with Russia, or should it try to build friendlier relations?” 43 percent of Americans responded the government should “try to build friendlier relations,” while 27 percent responded the government should “take a harder line,” and 29 percent were “not sure.”
For Democrats, however, 44 percent responded that America should “take a harder line” while only 29 percent responded the country should “try to build friendlier relations.” The poll shows 27 percent of Democrats are “not sure.”
Contrary to Romney’s statement during the 2012 election cycle, the poll also showed 57 percent of Republicans now support creating “friendlier relations” with Russia, while only 23 percent responded that the government “take a harder line.” The poll shows 20 percent of Republicans were “not sure.”
Republicans were more supportive of creating “friendlier relations” with Russia than any other group. Independents were the second most supportive of creating “friendlier relations,” with 46 percent supporting it. Out of independents, 18 percent were found to be in favor of taking a “harder line,” and 36 percent were “not sure.”
The YouGov poll was conducted from Oct. 23-24 via Web-based interviews and has a margin of error of ± 4% (adjusted for weighting).