Germans trust Putin, TV on-air poll shows

A telephone poll conducted live on air by German news channel N-TV has shown that the vast majority of participants trust Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The survey was conducted during the annual address of the Russian president to the Federal Assembly on December 1, which N-TV broadcast live. The privately-owned channel is one of Germany’s major TV news outlets, with an average of 5.1 million people tuning in daily, according to the broadcaster.

The poll, marked by the channel as non-representative, asked the viewers whether “one can trust Putin,” with the answer options either “yes” or “no.”

The results, which were updated by N-TV throughout Putin’s address, revealed that an overwhelming majority – at one point up to 81 percent – answered “yes.”

The outcome has caught the attention of people on social media, leading to mixed reactions regarding the survey.

One particular tweet claimed that while the majority of respondents trusted Putin, the ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is looking for ways of confrontation between Berlin and Moscow.

“#NTV Poll ‘Can you trust #Putin?’ - 80% of the callers say YES. #CDU policy document on the other hand wants confrontation,” the tweet read.

Another person said that people can trust the Russian president “not more and not less than #Merkel, #Trump and Co.”

One social media user made a sarcastic comment, saying that if online trolls and bots were behind the result, he was one of them.

“Oho only #Putin sympathizers & #Putinbots at #NTV! Me too,” his tweet said.

During his address to the Federal Assembly, President Putin said that Russia “is not seeking enemies,” warning though that the international community must respect the country’s interests.

According to an October poll conducted by the German Forsa Institute at the request of Stern Magazine, a majority of the respondents (84 percent) wanted Chancellor Merkel to continue contacts with Moscow and not try to isolate Russia.