What do Russians think about Harris and Trump?
Key points on Russian views of US presidential candidates
- As FilterLabs CEO Jonathan Teubner discussed on NBC this past weekend, Russian media has been paying more attention to Donald Trump than it has to Kamala Harris (see volume charts below), which appears to reflect their respective visibility in Russia.
- While mainstream press and social media are covering Harris in fairly neutral terms in Russia, FilterLabs’ Talisman platform revealed that most news stories with positive sentiment were based heavily on content from western publications while the negative stories were native to Russian media, with criticism of her support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and the expected imposition of further sanctions on Russia.
- Sentiment in discourse around Trump has risen and fallen with the fortunes of his campaign. Russian mainstream and social media were enthusiastic about the announcement of JD Vance’s vice presidential nomination, with his anti-interventionist policy position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine landing well among Russian audiences.
- Harris is still a relatively unknown quantity in Russia, at least compared to Trump. So as Harris becomes more well known, both as a subject of official news media coverage and as a popular figure, attitudes toward her are likely to shift.
Even before the debate earlier this week, the Russian media was following the U.S. presidential election closely.
FilterLabs has been tracking narratives about Trump and Harris in Russian mainstream news outlets and on social media for the past few months. Using the sentiment analysis and spot checking capabilities of Talisman, our data platform, we can glean insight into what Russians—both ordinary citizens and political insiders—are thinking about the candidates.
Volume of Articles Mentioning Trump and Harris
The Russian media has been paying more attention to Trump than it has to Harris. His debate with Biden, and the failed assassination attempt, both received extensive coverage:
Harris, by contrast, appeared infrequently in the Russian media before Biden dropped out of the race and she announced her campaign for president. Even after clinching the Democratic nomination, she has still received less coverage than her opponent:
The amount of coverage each candidate is receiving reflects their respective profiles in Russia. Trump is a well-known figure. Harris, by contrast, is a relatively unknown quantity. Attitudes toward her are probably fluid for now, and shifting, but as Russians see her in the news more often, their opinions of her will likely settle into place.
Sentiment surrounding Harris
The mainstream Russian press, which generally reflects the Kremlin’s views, is covering Harris in fairly neutral terms, neither positive nor negative. Average sentiment in news stories mentioning her has been stable, trending upwards slightly, over the past few months.
We found a similar pattern when we took a look at posts mentioning Harris in Talisman’s social feed from Russian, which includes social media sites, discussion forums, and messaging platforms. Sentiment has remained fairly steady over the past few months, though here the trend is slightly downward.
But sentiment scores don’t tell the whole story. We used Talisman to look more closely at the news stories and social posts underlying the sentiment scores, and these reveal a more complicated picture.
Most of the news stories with positive sentiment were based heavily on headlines from western publications, or they were stories that also appeared frequently in the western press. For instance, there were stories about Harris securing enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee, and on why Walz was her choice for VP. These stories drew heavily from The New York Times, Washington Post, etc.
The negative stories were native to Russian media, and more critical. Some bordered on conspiratorial. There were stories claiming that Harris was a puppet of the “establishment” and “globalists.” There were doubts about her foreign policy expertise and an article that purported to expose her connection to the investment firm BlackRock, which allegedly has an interest in prolonging the war in Ukraine.
Other articles made fun of Harris’ laugh. One went so far as to say that her laughter was symptomatic of undiagnosed schizophrenia.
Some of the same narratives were prevalent in social media. Commenters disliked her pro-Ukraine stance, criticized her level of intelligence and political experience, and ridiculed her laugh. Some recent posts noted Putin’s supportive comments about Harris and characterization of her laugh as “infectious,” but most of these did not share Putin’s apparent appreciation and continued to make fun of Harris’s laughter.
Sentiment surrounding Trump
Sentiment in discourse around Trump has risen and fallen with the fortunes of his campaign: up after his debate with Biden, falling sharply after the assassination attempt, and rising in the past month as his campaign runs neck and neck with Harris’s.
It’s important to note that sentiment scores indicate the sentiment or tone of a piece of text, not always the speaker’s attitude toward a specific subject. The sentiment in discourse around Trump was a good example. When the FilterLabs team used Talisman to look at the individual stories and social media artifacts driving these sentiment shifts, we found that in the sharpest sentiment dive, at the time of the assassination attempt, many of the stories were not negative towards Trump himself, but critical of the shooting, the security failures, etc. Russian commentators speculated that it would improve his chance of winning the election and wondered what that might mean for Russia. There were also positive stories about the Russian-born secret service agent who “saved Trump’s life” (as per headlines). We also found criticisms of Trump
Russian mainstream and social media were also enthusiastic about the announcement of JD Vance’s vice presidential nomination. His anti-interventionist policy position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine landed well among Russian audiences.
Conclusion
It is probably safe to say that the Russian media—both mainstream outlets and social media users—are in general more supportive of Trump than Harris.
Large Russian press organs are giving Harris studiously neutral coverage, but critical narratives around her are also bubbling up. According to more conservative outlets, and many social media users, Harris is at once dangerous to Russian interests (likely to impose sanctions and support Ukraine) and a political lightweight (inexperienced, perhaps mentally ill). Still, the Russian press is not giving overwhelmingly positive coverage to the Trump campaign either.
How might views in Russia shift after last week’s debate, and after the apparent second attempted assassination of former President Trump yesterday afternoon? Stay tuned.
FilterLabs on NBC
NBC reporter Keir Simmons interviewed FilterLabs CEO Jonathan Teubner as part of his coverage of Russian reactions to the US presidential race last Friday.
For additional insights from the FilterLabs team into Russians’ view of Vice President Harris, see our July 30 article “Kamala Harris in Chinese and Russian Social Media.”