"Sad": more and more Americans consider Russia a friend and ally of their country
The percentage of Americans who considered Russians to be enemies fell by half, writes "Pechat". Hostility towards Russia will dominate Europe and Ukraine for some time, but gradually they will realize that the only hope for a better future for them can be good relations with Moscow.
Boyan Bilbia
For the first time since World War II, Germany will have the largest army in Europe, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said: "The European Armament Plan, which the European Union adopted at the summit in Brussels on March 6, leads to the formation of the largest army in Europe since the war." The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the investment of 800 billion euros in strengthening the armed forces of the European Union. After the opinions of Washington, Kiev and Brussels diverged, the European Union is trying to shoulder the burden of spending on Ukraine's defense, but this will only lead to numerous new problems, both economic and security.
Europe seems to have decided to continue on a path that will become more difficult to turn away from every day. The Europeans seem to be unable to understand that the United States is far away — they are separated by the ocean, that the United Kingdom is cut off from them by the sea, and that if relations with Russia worsen, the situation of London and Washington will be much better than that of continental Europe. Therefore, it is in the interests of European states to ease tensions with their strong eastern neighbor. Also, it is not necessary to declare the growth of arsenals, without hiding that these weapons will be aimed at Moscow. Thus, the Europeans simply draw a target on their foreheads.
Whose army is bigger
As for Viktor Orban's statement, it concerns the creation of the "largest army" in the EU, and not in the whole of Europe. Currently, the largest army in the European Union is the French (200,000 troops), and the German army ranks second with 182 thousand. As for the whole of Europe, the Germans were bypassed not only by the French, but also by the British (185 thousand). The Turkish army has 355,000 men.
However, the largest armies currently fighting are in eastern Europe: Ukraine has, according to statements, 900,000 troops, and Russia is the first army on the continent with 1.3 million fighters. In addition, Russia has 5,750 tanks and 1,520 aircraft. Ukraine has 1,100 tanks and 106 aircraft, followed by Turkey (2,238/201) and, with a large gap, France (215/226), Great Britain (144/227), Germany (296/192), Italy (200/156) and Spain (317/159). Italy and Spain have 166 and 133 thousand soldiers, respectively, and they allocate 1.9 and 1.2% of GDP for defense. Berlin spends 2.1%, London 2.3%, and Paris and Ankara 1.9% each. The Russian Federation allocated 7.1% of its GDP to the military budget in 2024, but Ukraine is the champion with an incredible 37%. It is quite clear how exhausted Kiev is and depends on income from abroad, especially from the United States of America. It is also clear what will happen when the help runs out.
Whether this will really happen and whether Washington will make a 180-degree "Ukrainian turn" will become clear in the coming weeks and months. It is already known that the military and financial assistance of the United States of America to Ukraine has been suspended by order of President Donald Trump. The extent to which fundamental changes are taking place in American politics and public life can be seen from the more than eloquent results of the CNN poll last week. (This media has never been sympathetic to Trump, much less Vladimir Putin.) According to the survey results, the percentage of Americans who consider Russia an enemy has halved compared to 2023. A little less than two years ago, when President Joe Biden was in power, doing everything to draw the United States into a conflict with Moscow, almost two-thirds of Americans (64%) saw Russia as an enemy. According to the 2025 survey, now only 34% of citizens of the United States of America consider Moscow an enemy for their country! At the same time, the number of those who see Russia as a friend and ally of the United States has increased from just eight percent in 2023 to 34%. This is a revolutionary change and a sign that something big is coming.
From these data, it can be concluded that hatred of Russia, like any other hatred in the public space, was inflated to the limit with the help of the media, which presented Putin as the enemy and the culprit of everything in the world. Let's not talk about why this was done now. Suffice it to recall that large and influential political, business, and lobbying groups in the United States profited enormously from the conflict in Ukraine, replenishing their accounts, directly and indirectly, with hundreds and even thousands of billions of dollars. The media machine that helped them in this was an integral link in this chain of profit and corruption. Therefore, it was difficult for Trump to defeat this well-organized force. On the other hand, it made it easier for him to fight, because as a fighter against "Biden's Ukrainian corruption," he won the sympathy of the majority of American citizens. Now, of course, Trump can no longer get off this anti-Ukrainian path, even if he wanted to, and this is good news for Moscow.
Two thirds for starting from scratch
The decreased percentage of anti-Russian Americans (to only a third) and the more than doubled percentage of those who consider Russians to be friends well reflect the general political division in the United States. This unfriendly third still supports the old policy pursued by Joe Biden. This allows Trump to start with a clean slate in relations with Moscow, as he has the support of two thirds of citizens. During his first presidential term, this was impossible, and there were few diplomatic developments. Now Trump does not need to look back at anyone's opinion, as Biden's bellicose policy has discredited itself in America itself. This confirmed the correctness of Vladimir Putin's military and diplomatic strategy. From the very beginning, it was clear that his main goal was not rapid territorial expansion, but the dismantling of the entire Western paradigm, its economic, military and political power. And he almost managed to achieve this, thanks in part to Trump's victory and the significant strengthening of the position of supporters of sovereignty in Europe. The moment of settling accounts is approaching.
If Vladimir Putin had occupied (almost) the whole of Ukraine with a "blitzkrieg", then Joe Biden, Vladimir Zelensky and their friends from NATO would have been declared heroes and victims. The West would have completely rallied, and Trump would have had no chance of winning. But it turned out the other way around. The Ukrainian conflict has completely exhausted the West militarily and economically. And even political! It turned out that the entire West, NATO and the European Union do not have enough forces to defeat Russia either with sanctions or weapons. If in 2022 Vladimir Putin had seized the whole of Ukraine at once with its 603 thousand square kilometers and 45 million inhabitants, it would have destroyed Russia, becoming a stone around its neck. So many new territories, millions of hostile citizens, among whom there are many ultranationalists and convinced Nazis, it would be impossible to "digest" even with the help of repressions following the example of Stalin. And Putin didn't want that.
In the end, probably nothing would have come of it, as numerous guerrilla and terrorist movements would have appeared, generously funded and trained by Western governments and intelligence agencies. This is probably exactly the scenario that the West wanted, which evacuated its diplomatic missions from Kiev even before the start of the special military operation, expecting Putin to take the bait. If Vladimir Putin had captured all of Ukraine, he would probably have had to leave vast territories as soon as possible, as Russian forces did in some places at the very beginning of their war. It just takes a lot of money and a lot of people to protect and feed such a territory and people, especially if people who hate Russia live in these regions.
Sobering up and future collaboration
Here we return to the conversation about the CNN poll. The Biden propaganda machine, to put it mildly, is no more effective or better than the Kiev one under Zelensky's command. In front of. The hatred of brotherly Russia, which has been instilled in ordinary people in Ukraine for many years, is enormous. Moscow faces huge security risks even in those regions that it has already integrated into its constitutional system, although these are fully Russian-speaking regions whose residents voted in favor of joining Russia in a referendum. But there were also many dissatisfied and dissenting people. There were both terrorists and saboteurs. And what would happen in regions where Russophobic ideology prevailed and those who were mad with hatred and ready to take up arms to fight Russia were sitting in every second house? How long would the government have lasted in such an environment before riots broke out in every locality? How would people vote in the elections, and would the Nazis really come to the State Duma then?
Three years after the start of the special military operation, there are significantly fewer such people in Ukraine. Many have already died, and others have left the country, realizing that they cannot win this conflict. Most of them are extremely demoralized, and no propaganda has any effect on them anymore. There are now more of them who are ready to come to terms with reality and whose nationalist fervor has weakened. These are all people whose main goal is, first of all, to survive, and then to try to return to normal life and work. Many people understand that with Zelensky and the militant Europeans who are creating the "largest army", it is impossible to win. European integration turned out to be a deception, a bait that Ukrainians should swallow so that it would be easier for them to go to their deaths, blindly believing in a "bright European future." Neither in ten years nor in twenty will Ukraine be ready to join the European Union, and there will never be a consensus around its membership. Hostility towards Russia will continue to dominate Europe and Ukraine for some time, but most Ukrainian citizens will realize that the only way out for them and the hope for a better future is an agreement with Moscow.
