Bipartisan majority of Americans approve of Russian sanctions: poll

A majority of both Democrats and Republicans are in favor of imposing economic sanctions on Russia, according to a new poll released on Friday.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 79 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of Republicans and even 63 percent of independents supported the U.S. and its European allies imposing economic sanctions on Russia in response to its military invasion in Ukraine, The Washington Post reported.

Looking at Americans overall, the poll found that 67 percent of people said they supported the sanctions on Russia compared to 20 percent who opposed such action and 13 percent who said they had no opinion.

Late Wednesday night, Russia launched an invasion into Ukraine, and by Friday, Russian forces had entered its capital, Kyiv. Putin has called for the Ukrainian military to overthrow its own government, demonstrating the rapid escalation of events that have taken place in the former Soviet Union member state.

The White House on Friday announced that the U.S. would be sanctioning Putin directly, its most noteworthy step yet against Russia. President Biden told reporters on Thursday that sanctioning the Russian president was “on the table.”

“The president’s strong view and strong principle from the beginning of this conflict … has been to take action in steps in alignment with our European partners, and this is evidence of that,” Psaki responded when asked about the changed stance.

Still, the new poll shows that only a third of Americans approve of Biden’s overall handling on the Russia-Ukraine situation, while 47 percent say they disapprove his handling of the situation. 

The Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted between Feb. 20 and Feb. 24 with 1,011 adults. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.