Economic pessimism among Russians at highest in at least 20 years, Gallup poll shows

June 30 (Reuters) – Russians are more pessimistic about the state of their economy than at any time in the past 20 years, and a majority say living standards are worsening, ​polling organisation Gallup said in a survey published on Tuesday.

Gallup said 60% ‌of respondents in Russia said economic conditions in the city or area where they lived were getting worse, while only 27% thought they were improving and 9% believed they were remaining the same.

When ​asked about living standards, 56% said they were worsening, 29% said they were ​getting better and 14% saw no change.

The phone survey of 1,000 Russians, ⁠conducted between March 14 and May 6, reflects gloomy sentiment even before this month’s ​sharp worsening of the fuel supply situation. At a time of high seasonal demand, shortages of ​gasoline have broken out in many parts of the country after Ukraine intensified strikes on oil refineries.

Confidence in the Russian military was down to 66%, Gallup found, from 80% in 2022, the year ​of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and confidence in the government fell to 53% ​from 66% in the same period.

Gallup also published the results of a survey conducted in Ukraine, which ‌showed ⁠that approval of “the job performance of the leadership of the United States” had sunk to 7%, with 79% disapproving.

In the past two decades of Gallup polling across more than 140 countries, no other country has seen a larger drop in U.S. approval over any ​five-year period, the organisation ​said.

U.S. President Donald ⁠Trump, while sometimes criticising Russia’s Vladimir Putin, has also leaned on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to accept a peace deal on terms ​that Kyiv considers unacceptable, telling him at the White House last ​year: “You don’t ⁠have the cards.”

Gallup said 24% of respondents said Ukraine should keep fighting until victory, while 66% said it should seek to negotiate an end to the war as soon as ⁠possible – little ​changed since a year ago, when the figures were ​24% and 69%, respectively.

The survey of 1,000 Ukrainians, conducted in April, did not ask people what kind of ​negotiated settlement they would be prepared to accept.