China friendliest country for Russia, US - most hostile - VCIOM poll

MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Russians believe that at the moment their country has the friendliest relations with China, Belarus and Kazakhstan and most hostile relations - with the United States, suggests an opinion poll of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) the results of which were made public on Wednesday. As many as 51 percent of those polled said China had the friendliest attitude towards Russia among other countries. VCIOM experts said that this figure has more than doubled over the past six years - from 23 percent in 2008. The top three of the friendliest countries towards Russia also includes Belarus (32 percent of the polled) and Kazakhstan (20 percent). Sociologists say that these states have been more often named Russia’s friends now, compared to 2008 (then 14 and 8 percent of the polled, respectively, were of this view). Meanwhile, only 2 percent of respondents regard Germany as a friend at present, while in 2008 a total of 17 percent were of this view. Russians still regard the United States as the most hostile country to Russia. Six years ago, one-third of respondents were of this view (25 percent in 2008) and at present this figure has already reached three-thirds (73 percent in 2014). The share of those who believe Russia’s relations with Ukraine are extremely strenuous has also considerably increased (from 21 to 32 percent). The VCIOM-initiated poll embraced 1,600 people in 132 Russian localities. The error margin is within 3.5 percent. Read more