Is EU Overtaking US as Russia’s Main Adversary in Eyes of Russians?

After briefly seeing more Russians express positive views of the U.S. than negative ones in August 2025 for the 1st time since 2021, Levada Center pollsters found a return to the old trend, with a majority of Russians expressing a dim view of America, its allies and Ukraine in Levada’s October 2025 survey.¹ The share of those with good attitudes toward America decreased from 48% in August to 34% in October, while the share of those with bad attitudes toward America increased from 30% to 45% during the same period (Figures 1 and 2). As usual, there must have been multiple drivers of this change, but, perhaps, the expectations for the then-pending August summit of U.S. and Russian leaders in Alaska could explain the surge in good attitudes toward the U.S. among Russians. Then, the failure of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to achieve any substantive peace agreement at the summit coupled with tangible sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies could, perhaps, explain why those with good views of America are again in the minority. 

In contrast to Russians’ attitudes toward America, their views of Europe have not reversed recently, perhaps, because, in part, there were no expectations of a RF-EU summit of the kind Putin and Trump held in Alaska in August. A steady majority of Russians have continued to harbor negative feelings toward Europe in the course of Russia’s war against Ukraine (Figure 3). The same goes for Russians’ attitudes toward Ukraine (Figures 4 and 5).

Predictably, the countries Russians have had a bad attittude toward are also the countries Russians have named as the enemies of Russia when asked by Levada in October 2025, with the U.S. topping the list of Russia’s adversaries, followed by the EU and Ukraine. The U.S., EU and Ukraine dominate Russia’s “enemy” list because they are consistently presented as existential threats in state media, per Kremlin instructions to such media. At the same time, the share of Russians who view America as the No. 1 threat to Russia has been declining, from 67.7% in 2017 to 39% in 2025, almost halving. In contrast ,the share of Russians who view Europe/the EU as the No. 1 threat more than doubled in the same period, from 11.2% in 2017 to 29% in 2025 (see Tables 1 and 2). If the 2017-2025 trends, as displayed in Table 2 and Figure 6, continue, Europe/the EU (which Russian leaders tend to blame more for the continuation of the Russian-Ukrainian war than they blame Trump’s America) may overtake the U.S. as Russia’s bigger, if not biggest, adversary in 2026.

Simon Saradzhyan is the founding director of Russia Matters. Opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author. RM managing editor Angelina Flood also contributed to this post.