Revealing Russian views

A recently published analysis, made for the European Commission, of the perception of the EU in its 10 key partners shows revealing differences between public opinion in Russia and the other nine nations.

60% of Russians hear about the EU every day
The data confirms what readers of the Disinformation Digest already know: Russian media actively paint a negative image of the European Union.

According to the data, Russian are among those hearing most frequently about the European Union: more than 60% hear about the EU every day.

At the same time, for 75% of the respondents this information comes from media, which in 90% of the cases are local (Russian) media – the same level as in China.

Hypocritical, multicultural and arrogant
Given that media are the main source of information about the European Union and frequently report about the EU, respondents’ views arguably reflect the dominant narratives on the EU in Russian media very closely.

The result of watching Russian TV and listening to Russian radios is an overwhelmingly negative attitude to the EU: In no other country polled is the negative attitude to the EU so strong and the positive views are so weak.

Russians were also the only respondents to associate negative adjectives with the EU, with the three most cited being hypocritical, multicultural and arrogant.