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Sixty-four per cent of Russians approve of Putin's
stance on US operation - poll
Interfax
Moscow, 18 October: Seventy-one per cent of Russians favour a close alliance with the United States in the fight against international terrorism.
Seventy-eight per cent of Russians are aware of President Vladimir Putin's support for the United States and the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan. Fifty-four per cent approve of Putin's stance, while 25 per cent think the opposite (40 per cent of them are supporters of Communist Party leader Gennadiy Zyuganov).
The Public Opinion Foundation has made public the results of a 13 October poll of 1,500 city and town residents.
Sixty-four per cent of those polled said that the US military operation in Afghanistan was dangerous for Russia. Almost all of them defined their concerns. Thirty-six per cent said they feared Russia's involvement in a local or global military conflict. Similar fears were voiced by 14 per cent of the respondents, who erroneously believe that Russia borders Afghanistan or is very close to it. They said that the US-led campaign posed a direct threat to Russia's security. Five per cent of those polled said they feared that Russia might be attacked by international terrorists if it supported the United States. Two per cent said that refugees from Afghanistan might swarm into Russia. One per cent said that any Russian involvement in the conflict would entail additional spending from the budget.
Sixty-four per cent of Russians knew who the Taleban were or at least heard about the movement a year ago. Now the index is 83 per cent. Elderly and uneducated people are still ignorant about the Taleban (17 per cent and 26 per cent correspondingly).
Twenty-seven per cent of those polled said that the Taleban are bandits, rebels, terrorists and mercenaries in Afghanistan, 17 per cent said that the Taleban are a religious group, militant Islamists and religious fanatics, 9 per cent said that the Taleban are a people and residents of a certain area, 7 per cent defined the Taleban as an aggressive military organization, 5 per cent said the Taleban are Muslims, 3 per cent said the Taleban are a political organization in Afghanistan, and 2 per cent said it is an anti-governmental movement, 2 per cent said that the Taleban are students of Islamic theological schools.
A year ago no one described the Taleban as "international terrorists". Now this definition is given quite frequently ("they are terrorizing the entire world," "they are a real danger to the existence of mankind," and "a den of terrorists".)
The negative attitude to the Taleban dominated a year ago. The correlation between negative and neutral attitudes was 34 to 13 a year ago, and it is 55 to 24 now.
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