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#1
Viorsty
November 15, 2001
MY FRIEND? MY ENEMY?
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

Russia has no other friend so close as the United States now. We have the same enemy - Islamite terrorists. Russia has Chechen gunmen, the United States has the Taliban. We have the same aim - Osama bin Ladin, who finances them and supplies them with weapons. So there is a good platform for military-political collaboration, even if it is temporary, but steady and convincing. This is proved by considerable progress in relations between our presidents, demonstrated, in particular, at the summit in Texas, which has just finished, and serious changes in Russian public opinion.

"In all sincerity, do you want Americans succeed in their military operation in Afghanistan?" VTsIOM asked. "Yes" answered 57% of respondents. Moreover, 55% of respondents believe that the official support of Moscow means a radical turn to the better in Russian- American relations, 52% express sympathy and compassion with the American people in connection with the tragedy, and 43% call the United States a friendly state.

According to the Public Opinion Foundation, 55% of respondents approve of the stance taken in this respect by Vladimir Putin, while 70% favor the idea of establishing a close union of Russia and the United States in fighting international terrorism. at the same time, almost half of the respondents are alarmed about Russia participating in this conflict. Obviously, they still hold the last Afghanistan war in their memories.

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