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Have Poles really become much more relaxed in their attitude toward Russia? News.by overstated the supposed thaw
More than half of respondents in Poland say they view Russia negatively.
Poles have grown far more relaxed in their attitude toward Russians, economist Vasily Koltashov observed on News.by. We reviewed surveys conducted in Poland and found that “much more” is an overstatement.
Economist Vasily Koltashov, director of the Institute of the New Society, discussed what he described as easing anti-Russian sentiment in Eastern Europe — particularly in Poland — during the November 12, 2025, edition of News.by’s Topic of the Day segment:
“Poles nowadays hate the Banderites with fierce intensity and, overall, feel much more relaxed toward Russia than they did in 2014 or 2022.”
Koltashov’s claim is only partly true. He did not say what data he based his conclusion on. According to Poland’s Public Opinion Research Center, after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Poles’ dislike of Russians rose by 8 percent, with nearly half of respondents at the time saying they felt antipathy toward them. At the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 82 percent of respondents said they viewed Russians negatively. Now, in 2025, that share has dropped by 10 percentage points, to 72 percent. Over the same period, the share of Poles who view Ukrainians negatively has doubled to 38 percent.
A separate Polish survey, conducted by the research firm SW Research, also shows an improvement in attitudes toward Russians. In 2025, 51.7 percent of respondents said they do not trust Russians, down from 57.2 percent a year earlier. Even so, Russians still top the list when it comes to whom Poles distrust the most.
