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Russophilia is the identification or solidarity with, appreciation of, or support for thecountry,people,language, andhistory of Russia. One who espouses Russophilia is called arussophile. Itsantonym isRussophobia.[1][2] In the 19th century, Russophilia was often linked to variants ofpan-Slavism, since theRussian Empire andautonomous Serbia were the only two Slavic sovereign states during and after theSpringtime of Nations.
In politics, the term has been used to describe political actors who support closer relations with theRussian government or support its policies. Particularly in thePost-Soviet states, Russophile politicians may also support maintaining or increasingRussification policies, such asAlexander Lukashenko.[3][4][5]
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TheArmenian Revolutionary Federation,Republican Party of Armenia, andProsperous Armenia are the main Pro-Russian political parties inArmenia.[6][7][8][9]
Belarus has close political and economic ties with Russia, both being part of theUnion State, theCollective Security Treaty Organization, theCommonwealth of Independent States, and theEurasian Economic Union. Following the2020–2021 Belarusian protests and theRussian invasion of Ukraine, many observers have described Belarus as a Russianpuppet state or asatellite state.[10][11][12][13]
ThePeople's Republic of China under theleadership of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist PartyXi Jinping has supported the Russian Federation closely followinginternational sanctions after Russia invaded Ukraine.[14][15][16] China had close ties with the Soviet Union prior to theSino-Soviet split, owing to ideological kinship between the two communist states.[17]
Previous anti-Russian sentiment in China has greatly downgraded, due to perceived common anti-Western sentiment among Russian and Chinese nationalists.[18][19]Ethnic Russians are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.[20]
According to a 2019 survey by thePew Research Center, 71% of Russians have a favourable view of China.[21] AYouGov survey conducted in the same year found that 71% of the Chinese think Russia has a positive effect on world affairs.[22]
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, manysocial media users in China showed sympathy for Russian narratives due in part to distrust ofUS foreign policy.[23][24] According to a Carter Center China Focus survey in April 2022, approximately 75% of respondents agreed that supporting Russia in the war in Ukraine was in China's best interest.[25] On the other hand, aGenron NPO poll published seven months later found that 50.6% of Chinese respondents expressed some level of opposition to Russia’s wartime actions, compared with the 39.5% who expressed that its wartime actions were "not wrong".[26]
TheCommunist movement inFinland during theCold War inclined towards pro-Soviet tendencies, of which theTaistoist movement was especially pro-Soviet.[27][28][clarification needed]In more recent years, Russophilic sentiment in Finland has persisted in various forms. In 2023, former Social Democrat representative Mikko Elo, together with Mauno Saari, founded the Russophilic organizationNaapuriseura (“Neighbour Society”), which promotes closer ties and cultural exchange with Russia.[29]
The modern Finnish political landscape has also seen some pro-Russian political parties. The partyPower Belongs to the People (VKK) was notable for being the only political party in Finland with a strong, openly pro-Russian platform in 2022. VKK opposed economic sanctions imposed on Russia and expressed support for theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[30][31] However, the party has since dissasociated from the connections to Russia after Ano Turtiainen was replaced by Antti Asikainen.[32][33] Nevertheless, other political entities have also since echoed pro-Russian positions to varying degrees. TheTruth Party in Finland, had also refused to condemn Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and advocates for stronger bilateral relations with Russia.[34][35] And some who have promoted pro-Russian sentiment have also been found in theFreedom Alliance party of Finland, as a formerNational Coalition member who argued that Ukraine should be Russian territory was allowed to be among the candidates of the Freedom Alliance party in the2025 Finnish municipal elections.[36] Pro-Russian viewpoints have also been advocated by the Freedom Alliance member Armando Meman, who has been seen on Russian national television.[37]
Certain individual political activists in Finland have also been prominent for their support of Russia.Johan Bäckman is widely recognized for his pro-Russian views and has actively recruited Finnish volunteers to participate in the conflict in Ukraine on Russia’s side, even for a time joining the VKK party, led byAno Turtiainen.[38][39] Similarly to Bäckman, another Finnish influencerJanus Putkonen is known for pro-Russian rhetoric, and maintains the extremely pro-Russian Finnish languageMV-media website from Russian occupiedDonbas, which is known for sharing pro-Kremlin rhetoric.[40]
Some members of theFinns Party also held pro-Russian views in the past.[41]
German philosopherFriedrich 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 GermanReich has entered its crucial phase..." in his 1895 bookThe Antichrist.[42]
Many members of thefar-right political partyAlternative for Germany (AfD) have expressed pro-Russian or pro-Kremlin sentiments on various issues.[43][44] The left-populist partySahra Wagenknecht Alliance has expressed pro-Russian sentiments and opinions.[44]
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.[45]
Some Indonesians have positively compared support for Russian presidentVladimir Putin in theRusso-Ukrainian War to support for former presidentSuharto in theIndonesian invasion of East Timor.[46] Russophiles are also found among thepolitical left, who support Russia due to the inaugural Indonesian president,Sukarno's closeness to the Soviet Union. Pro-Russian sentiment is especially strong among members of the governingIndonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, led by Sukarno's daughterMegawati Sukarnoputri, who publicly criticized Ukraine and PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy.[47]
Traditionally, relations betweenRomania and Russia were shaped by the political system applied in both countries. Relations were cordial prior to the 19th century, and Russia helped Romaniaachieving its independence from the Ottoman Empire, the royal families of both countries later being allied. Relations developed after theSecond World War, when Romania fell under the communist umbrella led by theSoviet Union, becoming asatellite state of the USSR. However, afterCeaușescu'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 promotedhis own view of communism, inspired by the Chinese and North Korean systems, rather than the Soviet vision.
After the fall of theEastern Bloc, Romania became an ally of theUnited States, joining bothNATO and theEuropean Union, which faced criticism from Moscow. Romania's strategic position in NATO was seen as undesirable by Russia. As nationalist movements grew in Romania during the early 2020s, parties such as theAlliance for the Union of Romanians orS.O.S. Romania, parties seeking closer ties with Russia, rose to power, inadvertently dragging Romania back into a potential Russian influence zone.[48]
Revelations ofRussian interference in the2024 Romanian presidential election strained bilateral relations, with numerous large protests erupting across Romania after pro-Russian far-right candidateCălin Georgescu won the first round of elections through supposedly corrupt means, such as falsifying his budget for the electoral campaign, alongside Russian state-sponsoredtroll farms andhackers artificially increasing his support on social media, particularlyTikTok.[49] Due to those accusations, theConstitutional Court of Romania annulled the election, while Romania'sPermanent Electoral Authority barred Georgescu from running at next year's repeated election.[50][51] Subsequently,George Simion replaced Georgescu as a candidate in the2025 Romanian presidential election; however, despite securing a victory in the first round, he was eventually defeated in the runoff on 18 May by his pro-European and pro-Western opponent,Nicușor Dan.[52][53][54]
Serbia has historically been regarded as one of the most pro-Russian countries not only in Europe but also globally, with sympathies towards Russia remaining widespread to this day. Many Serbs consider Russia to be one of their country's closest allies, particularly due to the countries' shared (or similar) Slavic heritage, culture, language, andEastern Orthodox Christian faith.[55][56][57] According to theEuropean Council on Foreign Relations' 2021 opinion poll, 54% of Serbians considered Russia as an ally. In comparison, 11% perceived theEuropean Union as an ally, and only 6% regarded theUnited States in the same manner.[58]
Following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,People's Patrol, afar-right group, organized pro-Russian rallies inBelgrade, which were attended by 4,000 people.[59][60][61]
Public opinion surveys have shown that, even after many years into the Russian full-scale invasion and occupation of Ukraine, Serbian citizens' support for Russia has remained, on average, higher than in any other European country.[62][63] Results of opinion polls that were conducted by theInternational Republican Institute acrossWestern Balkan countries in the summer of 2025 found that 52% of Serbian citizens hold "very favorable" views of Russia, while Russian President Vladimir Putin is viewed "very favorably" by 50% of Serbian citizens.[64] Similarly, the results of WeBalkans' opinion polls, which were conducted during the same time, found that Russia is considered as "trustworthy" by 59% of Serbian citizens, which was significantly higher than Serbian citizens' trust in any other country or international institution, includingEuropean Union,United States,United Kingdom, andNATO, which were regarded as "trustworthy" only by 38%, 17%, 13%, and 5% of Serbian citizens respectively.[65]
In 2017, the inhabitants of the Serbian village of Adžinci renamed their villagePutinovo, in honor of Vladimir Putin.[66][67]
FollowingUkrainian independence in 1991, in the1991 Ukrainian independence referendum, 92% (including 55% ofethnic Russians) voted for independence from theSoviet Union,[68] but some Ukrainians, mostly in the east and south of the country, voted to see a more Russophile attitude of thegovernment, ranging from closer economic partnership to full national union.[69] Russia and Ukraine had especially close economic ties, and the Russophilicpolitical party, theParty of Regions, became the largest party in theVerkhovna Rada in the2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election, receiving 33% of the votes. It would remain a dominant force in Ukrainian politics until the 2014Revolution of Dignity. Following the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine, the overall attitude of Ukrainians towards Russia and Russians has become much more negative,[70] with most Ukrainians favoringNATO[71] andEuropean Unionmembership.[72] Their views on Russia would further deteriorate following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A survey by theKyiv 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.[73] 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.[74] However, this sentiment among Ukrainians collapsed following theRussian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In a poll in August 2022, 81% of Ukrainians expressed negative views towards Russia, 14% have neutral attitudes, and only 3% have positive ones.[75]
This change following the invasion in 2022 is also reflected in political attitudes. According to two polls conducted by theKyiv International Institute of Sociology in February and May 2022, Russophilic attitudes in Ukraine plunged in just three months, with positive attitudes towards Russia falling from 53% to 4% inthe East, and from 45% to just 1% inthe South.[76][77] Conversely, support forUkrainian membership in NATO skyrocketed, from 36% to 69% in the country's east, and from 48% to 81% in the south.[78] From a poll in April 2022, 90% of surveyed Ukrainians support stripping deputies from pro-Russian parties of their mandates, and 86% support banning the activities of these parties entirely.[79] As a result, theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace announced that regardless of how the war ends, pro-Russian parties and sentiments in Ukraine are "firmly in the past".[80]
Besides politics, there is also increasing support for the removal of symbols ofRussian culture in Ukraine, including monuments[81] and streets[82] named after notable Russians,[83] along with limitingRussian literature andmusic.[84] Massivedecommunization campaigns coupled with intensivederussification have been carried out since 2014, most notably the toppling of several statues ofVladimir Lenin (termed Leninfall) and the renaming of many places withSoviet-associated names.[85] Since the invasion, Ukrainian citiesdemolished monuments to Russian writerAlexander Pushkin across the country,[86] and there are also hundreds ofrenamed placenames due to their affiliation with Russia.[87]
According to an interview conducted by the UkrainianRada TV, former Prime Minister of the United KingdomBoris Johnson is a Russophile, admiring the Russian language and culture, even after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[88] Leader ofReform UK and currentMP forClacton,Nigel Farage, has made multiple comments praising Russian president Vladimir Putin[89][90] and pushing pro-Russian sentiments and occasionallymisinformation[91] since the beginning of theRusso-Ukrainian War in 2014, even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.[92][93]
From the end ofWorld War II to the end of theCold War (and also several decades afterward), theRepublican Party was considered to have more negative attitudes towards Russia than theDemocratic Party, with the former overwhelmingly perceiving Russia as one of the biggest (if not the biggest) US adversaries and threats to US's friends and allies across the world, as well as a threat to US interests on international level, which it pursued by supporting US's enemies.[94][95] However, the perception of Russia among Republican Party members began to shift gradually from negative to positive in the 2010s, with an increasing number of Republicans and their supporters expressing positive views on Russia.[96][97][98][99] A 2017 poll highlighted that around 32% of respondents had favorable views of Russian PresidentVladimir Putin.[100] Following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, these numbers surged.[101] AYouGov poll found nearly 62% of Republicans preferredVladimir Putin overJoe Biden, noting that the former was a stronger leader than the latter.[102] Many notable Republican politicians and conservative public figures, including US PresidentDonald Trump, US Vice PresidentJD Vance, Trump's Senior Counselor and media executiveSteve Bannon, politician and commentatorPat Buchanan, Kentucky SenatorRand Paul, Georgia RepresentativeMarjorie Taylor Greene, Florida RepresentativeMatt Gaetz, political commentator and live streamerNick Fuentes, social media influencerJackson Hinkle, television presenterTucker Carlson, political commentator and journalistMegyn Kelly, political activist and authorCandace Owens, andTurning Point USA's founderCharlie Kirk, have expressed support for Russia or Putin in the war against Ukraine.[103][104]
Favorable perceptions of Russia inVietnam have 83% of Vietnamese people viewing Russia's influence positively in 2017.[105] This stems from historicSoviet support forNorth Vietnam and theViet Cong during theVietnam War. As well as support for Vietnam since 1975 by both the Soviet Union and Russia.[106]
Media related toRussophiles at Wikimedia Commons
