MOSCOW. Feb 8 (Interfax) - More than a half of Russians believe the United States is a country that is unfriendly toward Russia, and that the U.S. today play rather a negative role, a social poll have shown. According to the poll by Public Opinion Foundation (POF), 58% of Russians believe the U.S. is an unfriendly country, 19% think the opposite, 23% did not answer.

Fifty-eight percent of Russians said that today the U.S. plays rather a negative role, while 13% said its role was rather positive, and 29% of respondents did not answer the question.

According to POF, 16% of respondents believe the relations between Russia and the U.S. improved over the past year while 18% said relations had soured. At the same time, 44% of Russians said the relations between the two countries have not changed overall. Twenty-two percent of respondents did not answer.

Thirty-four percent of respondents believe that the relations between Russia and the U.S. will not change, 13% said they will improve, 12% said they will sour. Forty-one percent did not have an opinion on how the relations between the two countries will change.

The poll revealed that 63% of respondents are aware of the upcoming U.S. presidential election this November (37% know, 26% "heard something"), 32% said it was the first time they heard about it, 6% did not answer.

According to 63% respondents, the outcome of this election is important for Russia, 19% said the U.S. presidential election is an event of small significance for the country, and 18% did not answer.

The poll was conducted on February 2-3 among 1,500 respondents in 100 towns across 46 Russian regions. The margin of error is 3.6%.