U.S. tops Russian ‘most hostile’ countries – poll

(Interfax – June 18, 2013) The United States has overtaken Georgia as the state Russians consider the most hostile to their country even though positive overall perceptions of the US continue to outweigh the negative, according to a new opinion poll reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.

Asked to list the top five countries they regard as being “most unfriendly and hostile” to Russia in an annual survey on international relations by the respected Levada Centre, 38 per cent per cent of respondents gave the US as their first choice – a slight rise from 35 per cent in the last poll in 2012.

Georgia came second on 33 per cent of respondents in 2013, down from 41 per cent last year according to the poll, which was published on 18 June.

The survey was carried out on 23-27 May among 1,601 people of voting age and with a margin of error of 3.4 per cent, according to the Levada Centre.

The possible shift in perceptions comes as relations between the Russian and Georgian governments continue their gradual improvement since the election of the new Georgian Prime Minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili, in October 2012.

Since taking office Ivanishvili has sought to mend ties strained by the conflict between the countries over the Georgian breakaway republic of South Ossetia in 2008.

As in 2012, the Baltic states – Latvia (on 21 per cent), Lithuania (17 per cent) and Estonia (16 per cent) – occupied the next three places in respondents’ “most hostile” list.

Asked about their “attitude on the whole” towards the United States, 51 per cent of Russians said they had either “generally good” or “very good” views, compared to 38 per cent who answered “generally bad” or “very bad”.

Overall views of the European Union also continued to positive on the whole despite a slight fall in the number of those responding “generally good” from 60 per cent in 2013 to 55 per cent this year.

As in last year’s survey, Belarus again came top of the list of countries Russians consider to be the Russia’s “closest allies and friends”, being named by 46 per cent of respondents, up from 34 per cent. It was followed by Kazakhstan (31 per cent), China (20 per cent), Ukraine (16 per cent)and Germany (14 per cent).