Interfax: Russians like Belarus and China, have aversion to U.S., EU and Ukraine – poll

(Interfax – June 8, 2015)

Most Russians speak ill of the United States, the European Union and Ukraine and see Belarus, China and Kazakhstan as friends, the Levada Center has told Interfax.

Seventy-three percent of 1,700 respondents polled in 134 populated localities on May 22-25 expressed negative feelings for the U.S., 15 percent said the opposite, and 12 percent were undecided.

Russians have similar sentiments about the European Union and Ukraine: 26 percent have a positive attitude and 59 percent feel negative. A total of 16 percent and 14 percent, respectively, were undecided.

Thirty-nine percent of the respondents assessed Russia-Germany relations as normal, 33 percent said the relations were passing through a period of cooling, 12 percent claimed tensions and 2 percent animosity. Nine percent said the relations were good.

Russians traditionally like Belarus and China (83 percent and 80 percent, respectively), and 7 percent feel the opposite.

Opinions about Georgia differed: 42 percent of the respondents like the country and 36 percent do not. Almost a quarter of the respondents (22 percent) could not answer the question.

In the opinion of the respondents, the top five friends of Russia are Belarus (55 percent), China (43 percent), Kazakhstan (41 percent), India and Armenia (18 percent each). The ‘anti-rating’ leaders are the United States (73 percent), Ukraine (37 percent), Latvia and Lithuania (25 percent each) and Poland (22 percent).