Russophilia is the identification or solidarity with, appreciation of, or support for the Russia, Russians, Russian language, and history of Russia. One who espouses Russophilia is called a russophile. Its antonym is Russophobia.
In politics, the term has been used to describe political actors who support closer relations with the Russian government or support its policies. Particularly in the Post-Soviet states, Russophile politicians may also support maintaining or increasing Russification policies, such as Alexander Lukashenko.
By country
Armenia
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Republican Party of Armenia, and Prosperous Armenia are the main Pro-Russian political parties in
Armenia.
[ Prosperous Armenia Party Stresses Importance of Expanded Security Relations with Russia][ Republican Party of Armenia Equates Anti-Russian Propaganda with Anti-Armenian][ ARF: Azerbaijan and Turkey impose destructive concessions on Armenia][ Dashnaks Back New Russian-Armenian Pact]
Belarus
Belarus has close political and economic ties with Russia, both being part of the
Union State, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Eurasian Economic Union, due to their shared Soviet heritage.
Following the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many observers have described Belarus as a Russian puppet state or a satellite state.
China
The
China under the leadership of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
Xi Jinping has supported the Russian Federation closely following international sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine.
China had close ties with the Soviet Union prior to the Sino-Soviet split, owing to ideological kinship between the two communist states.
Previous anti-Russian sentiment in China has greatly downgraded, due to perceived common anti-Western sentiment among Russian and Chinese nationalists.[Li 2003, p. 100]
According to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, 71% of Russians have a favourable view of China.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, many social media users in China showed sympathy for Russian narratives due in part to distrust of US foreign policy.
Finland
The Communist movement in
Finland during the
Cold War inclined towards pro-Soviet tendencies, of which the
Taistoism movement was especially pro-Soviet.
In 2023, a former Social Democrat representative Mikko Elo and Mauno Saari created the Russophilic organization
Naapuriseura ('neighbour society').
The Finnish political party Power Belongs to the People (VKK) was unique in its strong support of Russia, being the only pro-Russian party in Finland as of 2022. It protested against sanctions on Russia and supported the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Another party, the Truth Party in Finland has also refused to condemn the 2022 war in Ukraine, and it supports stronger relations with Russia.
Germany
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche described Russia as "the only power that has durability in it, which can wait, which can still produce something... the antithesis of that pitiable European petty-state politics and nervousness, with which the foundation of the German Reich has entered its crucial phase..." in his 1895 book
The Antichrist.
Many members of the far-right political party Alternative for Germany (AfD) have expressed pro-Russian or pro-Kremlin sentiments on various issues.
India
A poll conducted in summer 2022 shows that Indians most frequently named Russia their most trusted partner, with 43% naming Russia as such compared to 27% who named the US.
Indonesia
Some Indonesians have positively compared support for Russian president
Vladimir Putin in the Russo-Ukrainian War to support for former president
Suharto in the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.
Russophiles are also found among the political left, who support Russia due to inaugural Indonesian president
Sukarno's closeness to the Soviet Union. Pro-Russian sentiment is especially strong among members of the governing Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, led by Sukarno's daughter Megawati Sukarnoputri, who publicly criticized Ukraine and president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Iran
According to a December 2018 survey by IranPoll, 63.8% of Iranians have a favorable view of Russia.
Romania
Traditionally, relations between
Romania and Russia were shaped by the political system applied in both countries. Relations were cordial prior to the 19th century, and Russia helped Romania achieving its independence from the Ottoman Empire, the royal families of both countries later being allied. Relations developed after the Second World War, when Romania fell under the communist umbrella led by the
Soviet Union, becoming a
satellite state of the USSR. However, after Ceaușescu's rise to power in 1965, relations became strained; Romania became the first country to free itself fully from the Soviet Union, and relations were mostly only cordial, as Ceaușescu promoted
July Theses rather, inspired by the Chinese and North Korean systems, than the Soviet vision.
After the fall of the Eastern Bloc, Romania became an ally of the United States, joining both NATO and the European Union, which faced criticism from Moscow. Romania's strategic position in NATO was seen undesirable by Russia. As nationalist movements grew in Romania during the early 2020's, parties such as the Alliance for the Union of Romanians or S.O.S. Romania, parties seeking closer ties with Russia, rose to power, inadvertly dragging Romania back to a potential Russian influence zone.
In 2024, presidential elections in Romania were marked by accusations of Russian involvement, after pro-Russian far-right candidate Călin Georgescu won the first round of elections through supposed corrupt means, such as falsifying his budget for the electoral campaign. Due to those accusations, the first round was canceled, and a full investigation is ongoing as of 2025.
Serbia
Russia is popular in
Serbia, and many
Serbs have traditionally seen Russia as a close ally due to shared
Slavs heritage, culture, and the Orthodox faith.
According to the European Council on Foreign Relations, 54% of Serbians see Russia as an ally. In comparison, 11% see the
European Union as an ally, and only 6% see the
United States in the same manner.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, People's Patrol, a far-right group, organized pro-Russian rallies in Belgrade, which were attended by 4,000 people.
In 2017, the inhabitants of the Serbian village of Adžinci renamed their village Putinovo, in honor of Vladimir Putin.
in National Assembly of Serbia]]
and
Serbs brothers forever"]]
Ukraine
Following Ukrainian independence in 1991, in the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum 92% (including 55% of ethnic Russians) voted for independence from Moscow,
[ The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev by Daniel Treisman, Free Press, 2012, (page 178)] but some Ukrainians, mostly in the east and south of the country, voted to see a more Russophile attitude of the government, ranging from closer economic partnership to full national union.
Russia and Ukraine had especially close economic ties, and the Russophilic political party, the Party of Regions, became the largest party in the
Verkhovna Rada in the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election, receiving 33% of the votes. It would remain a dominant force in Ukrainian politics, until the 2014 Revolution of Dignity. Following the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, the overall attitude of Ukrainians towards Russia and Russians has become much more negative,
[ How Ukraine views Russia and the West, Brookings Institution (18 October 2017)] with most Ukrainians favoring
NATO and
European Union membership.
Their views on Russia would further deteriorate following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in 2016 found that 67% of Ukrainians had a positive attitude to Russians, but that only 8% had a positive attitude to the Russian government.
According to an October 2021 poll of the country's population, 41% of Ukrainians had a "good" attitude towards Russians (42% negatively), while in general 54% of Russians had a positive attitude towards Ukraine.
In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the pro-Russian sentiment that formerly dominated Ukraine's south and east collapsed. According to polls conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, those with positive attitudes towards Russia plunged from 53% to 4% in the East, and from 45% to just 1% in the south.
Besides politics, there is also increasing support for the removal of symbols of Russian culture in Ukraine, including monuments
United Kingdom
According to an interview made by the Ukrainian
Rada TV, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Boris Johnson is a Russophile, admiring Russian language and culture, even after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Leader of
Reform UK and current MP for Clacton
Nigel Farage has made multiple comments praising Russian president Vladimir Putin
and pushing pro-Russian sentiments and occasionally misinformation
since the Russo-Ukrainian War since 2014, even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
United States
Many members of the Republican Party in the
United States express positive views on Russia. A 2017 poll highlighted that around 32% of respondents had favorable views of Russian president
Vladimir Putin.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, these numbers surged. A
YouGov poll found nearly 62% of Republicans preferred
Vladimir Putin over
Joe Biden, noting that the former was a stronger leader than the latter.
Many notable Republicans, including President
Donald Trump, television presenter
Tucker Carlson, and incumbent Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have all expressed admiration for Russia and its leaders.
Vietnam
Favorable perceptions of Russia in
Vietnam have 83% of Vietnamese people viewing Russia's influence positively in 2017.
This stems from historic
Soviet support for
North Vietnam and the
Viet Cong during the
Vietnam War. As well as support for Vietnam since 1975 by both the Soviet Union and Russia.
See also
Further reading
-
Orest Subtelny. Ukraine. A history. University of Toronto Press. 1994. .
