Washington briefing: Survey: Obama most, Putin least popular among world’s leaders

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Saturday July 04, 2009

President Obama and Premier Putin enjoying the outdoors.  . PeopleComment

Washington - America's president is by far the world's most popular leader, according to surveys that were conducted in 20 countries and involved more than 19,000 respondents.

President Barack Obama had the confidence of more than 60 percent of respondents, followed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and German chancellor Angela Merkel with 40 percent each, the only other world leaders whose admirers outnumbered their detractors in the period between April and June of this year, when the studies were conducted.

In the countries surveyed, Mr. Obama enjoyed the least confidence in Palestine, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, and Russia, with Turkey's public opinion evenly divided.

Meanwhile, Russian premier Vladimir Putin and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered from the worst negative ratings, at 50 and 49 percent of respondents respectively.

Mr. Putin was most popular in India (65 percent), China (64), and Ukraine (57). And Mr. Ahmadinejad enjoyed the most support in Pakistan (75), Palestine (57), and Nigeria (50).

When calculating worldwide averages, figures from the leaders' own countries were excluded, but both Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama had the confidence of their own publics, at 82 and 62 percent respectively.