Russia drops from 2nd to 8th among top perceived threats in G7 over last year
The assessment of the threat risk from Russia in the G7 countries fell to eighth place in 2025 after it rose to second place in 2024 from fourth a year earlier, according to the results of the Munich Security Index (MSI) 2025, published on Tuesday.
"While still ranked as a significantly greater risk than it was in 2021, the perceived seriousness of Russia as a risk has declined across all surveyed countries since last year's survey – in particular among G7 countries," the document reads.
In particular, the biggest changes were recorded in the United States and Canada, where the Russian problem now ranks 15th, while a year earlier it was in second.
For citizens of the UK, the risk of a threat from Russia has slipped to third place from first a year earlier, Germany – to fourth from second, France – to sixth from fourth, Italy – from 12th to 13th.
Only citizens of Japan have maintained their assessment over the year and left the Russian problem in fourth position.
In contrast, in China and India, Russia is the second and first problem from the bottom of the list of 32 risks, respectively, and in Brazil and South Africa – the fifth from the bottom, although a year earlier it was ninth.
Over the year, Russia's negative indicator improved from 20.9% to 18.0%, while Ukraine's positive indicator decreased from 32.6% to 28.3%.
The authors of the ranking note that, reflecting current developments in U.S. foreign policy, respondents in almost all G7 and BICS countries – except Japan and China – now see the United States as a more serious threat than last year.
Moreover, the risk posed by trade wars is now perceived as much more serious than last year and has a higher ranking than ever in G7 and BICS countries: in the G7 it rose to seventh place from 21st, in the BICS – to 10th from 21st.
"Against the backdrop of numerous dramatic political and economic crises dominating the global agenda, environmental risks have come to be perceived as less imminent. Although the actual costs of global warming are rapidly increasing, the share of respondents who perceive extreme weather and forest fires and climate change as imminent risks to their country has been declining throughout G7 and BICS countries since the first edition of the MSI in 2021, reaching a new low in 2025," according to the report.
However, respondents in the BICS countries continue to see environmental risks as the top risk to their country – a trend that has remained unchanged since 2021. In contrast, among the G7 countries, environmental risks have gradually declined in their ranking in recent years. In the meantime, cyberattacks, economic or financial crises and disinformation campaigns by adversaries have come to be seen as the most serious risks in the G7 countries.
Overall, most countries perceive most risks as less serious than last year. However, the opposite trend is observed in the United Kingdom, the United States and India, where more risks are now considered more serious than last year. In the United States, there is a particularly pronounced increase in the perception of the seriousness of risks related to the economic and political situation in the country, such as food shortages, the collapse of democracy, rising inequality, economic or financial crisis, civil war or political violence, and trade wars, the study notes.
The Munich Security Index is compiled by the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in partnership with Kekst CNC. The survey, which was conducted from November 5 to 25, 2025, involved 1,000 people from each country. In 2022, Russia was excluded from the survey, but it was conducted in Ukraine.
