India Has Gained Points on The List of Russia’s Friends: The Reason Is Consistency
17:38 28.05.2025 (Updated: 18:43 28.05.2025)
© AP Photo / Manish Swarup
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Which nations are Russia’s best friends, in the eyes of the public? A remarkable change in that list has occurred recently, according to a fresh survey by the most prestigious polling agency, VCIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center).
The results have not yet been translated for the agency’s English website, but you may try to google-translate it from the Russian version of the website, though. And you may even join the lively discussion on the results.
The mentioned change in Russian public opinion is, first and foremost, about India. Your nation has climbed up two points since 2019, and is now holding the bronze on the pedestal, among the very best friends. And that’s an unusual situation, since India’s way up cannot be explained by sudden and temporary shifts in public opinion due to some spectacular recent events.
The first two of Russia’s friends are the same as years before, and that is, naturally, China and Belorussia. Here one has to keep in mind that the previous polls have been conducted in relatively peaceful environment, before the real military pressure on Russia began in late 2021-early 2022, resulting in full-scale hostilities in February 2022. China and Belorussia, unlike North Korea, have not participated directly in the action, but there never have been any doubt about their support in need. Not to mention the fact of these two nations’ drastically increased trade with Russia. Belorussia, to add, is in military alliance with Moscow.
So, why India? Says Mr. Stanislav Tkachenko, professor of St. Petersburg State University: the reason is consistency. From the very start of the war India has been openly disapproving of economic sanctions against Russia. Our trade with the Asian giant has also leaped up exactly since the moment the West began its outright military and economic pressure on Moscow.
You can certainly add a lot to Tkachenko’s opinion, but I’d say that it’s remarkable how accurate is his choice of the right word. Your real friend may agree or disagree with you on many issues. But a friend, of course, is supposed to be on your side and help along, or stay neutral in some case. And, first and foremost, you want to know what to expect of your friend, and that’s consistency to you.
Here we may look at the two nations that have lost some points to India, in the public opinion. That’s Kazakhstan and Turkey. What’s interesting, here the wide public is more radical in its assessment than the political circles in Moscow. Thing is, Russia has helped Kazakhstan’s and Turkey’s leaders to repel violent attempts of overthrow of governments, in early 2022 and 2016 respectively. So, the Russian and any other public would be right to assume that these two nations and governments would do anything to help Moscow in any drastic circumstance.
To repeat, the political circles in Moscow understand very well the reasons for Turkey’s and Kazakhstan’s balancing acts in their foreign policy. A lot of hard economic and other reasons compel these nations to be careful in what they say or do. To add, both Kazakhstan’s and Turkey’s leaders have hugely increased their economic activities with Russia, and, in fact, render a lot of help.
So, they stay among friends, but the wider and very emotional Russian public wants our friends to be a bit more vocal and less timid in words. You may say that in some cases a word is more precious than material help, or at least that’s what Russians think and feel about it.
Luckily, there was no case when Russia had to help the Indian government (and the whole nation) to survive physically. If it was so, then our public would have expected the New Delhi to reciprocate, one day, and do not mince words at the very least. While the current reaction of India to the Russia-Western conflict seems to match exactly the public expectations. It’s a little bit like the art of wearing just the right attire for the occasion, which surely adds to respectability of the person mastering that art.
So, that’s about friends in need. But you may see the same situation mirrored in our public’s opinion on who are Russia’s enemies. The changes here are equally remarkable, and it’s first and foremost about the USA drastic sliding down on the bad guys list. That, again, is the case of meeting or not meeting expectations.
America used to be the Russian public’s arch enemy in all the previous similar surveys, topping the black list. Now it is still there, but is down by amazing five points. The real bad fellows now are France, Britain, Germany, and do not forget Ukraine. Ukraine, to note, is been seen by the public as a miserable, though obviously murderously aggressive victim of the West’s hatred towards Russia. But, to repeat, the US used to be the cheerleader of that hatred. Not anymore. It has even got itself simultaneously to the bottom of the friend’s list, with 7 per cent of those surveyed risking to say that America may even be called a friend now.
Explanations are numerous. Mr. Boris Mezhuev, professor of Moscow University, thinks it’s mostly about Donald Trump as a person. He is not politically correct, and he is a hero of common folks, not the elites, which makes him popular in Russia, Mezhuev thinks. He also says the right words at the right moment, showing some respect to Russia, adds he.
The survey’s result has certainly taken aback a lot of people in Moscow. Don’t listen to what Trump says, he says a lot and contradicts himself, so look at what these Americans do, the military experts say. The American tanks and personnel carriers are still there, at the battle lines, the American weaponry is still raining down on the heads of civilians, which seems to be Ukraine’s preferable way of waging war. American advisors and experts are still all around Ukraine, posing as volunteers. So what has changed? Nothing, essentially.
Now let us look at the currently blacklisted European powers. Again, it’s not only what they do, that really matters for the Russian public. What really takes us aback, is the way they talk, while explaining their delivery of weapons to Ukraine or blocking every Russian or American effort to negotiate peace.
Russians are really disappointed by Germany’s aggressive rhetoric, says Alexander Rahr, a German political researcher. Russians were able to reconcile with Germans after the World War II, have facilitated that nation’s unification. So how did that happen, that today Germany talks and acts like Britain, that has always been Moscow’s super enemy? Same with France, that has been viewed favorably by most Russians, who even tend to forget Napoleon’s invasion in 1812.
So what good may come out of the current shifts in public opinion? One may envisage a possibility of seeing eye to eye with India about the future of dealing with the US. That may suddenly meet a cautious approval of the Russian public, too.
Dmitry Kosyrev is a Russian writer, author of spy novels and short stories. He also did columns for the Pioneer and Firstpost.com
