Photo credit: Alexei Nikolsky/ITAR-TASS/ZUMAPRESS.com

Vladimir Putin: Stronger leader than President Obama? Photo: Alexei Nikolsky/ITAR-TASS/ZUMAPRESS.com

Three out of four Americans say Russian President Vladimir Putin is a strong leader, but less than half regard President Obama as one,  according to an Economist/YouGov poll.

Worse for Obama, a majority of Americans (55 percent) think he is a weak leader, as Paul Bedard of The Washington Examiner gleaned from the survey.

Most recently, Obama’s leadership skills have come under scrutiny because of Russia’s military incursion into the Crimea region of Ukraine.  In the U.S. Senate, lawmakers have raised objections to the president’s handling of the crisis, especially when it comes to withholding aid to give more money to the International Monetary Fund.

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The Economist/YouGov poll of 1,000 adults March 8 through 10 also found that half of Americans favor staying out of the Ukraine crisis. Among options discussed in policy circles, The Heritage Foundation advocates exporting energy supplies to Ukraine to free it from the grip of Russian control of energy for the region.

This story was produced by The Foundry’s news team. Nothing here should be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation.