Demoscope Bureau for Express Monitoring of Public Opinion conducted a public opinion poll to find out what people of Kazakhstan think about relationships between the US and Russia, as well as the new package of sanctions. 1,741 people from Almaty, Astana and 14 regional centers took part in the poll, with 68% of women and 38% of men aged over 16 years old. The maximum statistical error for the selection with 90% possibility does not exceed 0.97%. The respondents were interviewed by phone and online in September 2017. To remind, the US Congress approved the new package of sanctions against Russia. In August, President Trump signed the package.
Regarding the attitude of Kazakhstan people towards the news, there are interesting patterns. 35% of the respondents are optimistic, being sure “the relations between two countries have reached the critical point, and can be improved…”. 21% are rather pessimistic: they think “Russia will never accept the US conditions, and there will be no improvements in the situation”.
As for the impact of new sanctions on Kazakhstan, the people do not cherish any illusions. 46% think that “In case Russia has problems, Kazakhstan also has problems, as all of us are parts of the single economic territory, tenge is connected to ruble, and in case tenge continues falling, the crisis will go deeper”. The majority of votes were given to our neighbor and its fight back against sanctions. When answering the question “Do you think that Russia should fight back?”, 44% said that “It should, and we should support our neighbor”.
“Will the new package of sanctions lead to more active confrontation between Russia and United States?” – this question revealed no single trend in opinions. One third of the respondents think it is possible. Another one third noted that “there will be no active conflict, but recovery of the iron curtain is possible”. The same number of people thinks there will be no confrontation.
We asked the interviewees to imagine that Russia and US agree on all questions. 30% suggested they would be glad to hear such news. 21% felt some doubts, and chose the answer “It is possible, but not real”, while 17% said they want it.