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Half of Russians See NATO as Aggressive Alliance - Poll
Interfax - 1.25.12 - JRL 2012-14

MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Forty-eight percent of Russian citizens polled recently have the right idea of what NATO is and they described the Alliance in neutral tones as a military bloc (37%), or as an international alliance (11%), the state-run pollster VTSIOM told Interfax.

One tenth of those polled see NATO as "an aggressive organization". Another 10% described it as an American organization and 4% as a peacekeeping alliance, VTSIOM said.

The percentage of respondents who deem NATO an aggressive organization has shrunk from 15% to 9% over the past two years, while that of neutrally-biased respondents has increased from 42% to 48%.

Meanwhile, half of respondents polled said their opinion of NATO was negative. Negative attitudes vary depending on the respondents' age group, from 40% among young people to 55% among citizens of pre-pension age. The strongest critics of NATO are supporters of the Communist Party (59%). Only 13 of respondents polled have a positive opinion of NATO, and they are primarily supporters of the United Russia party (16%), and well-off or young citizens (21% each). Compared to 2009 the share of negative judgments has reduced from 58% to 50%, and positive grew from 8% to 13%.

Opinions on the extent of NATO's influence vary, with 35% of those questioned saying that this influence remains unchanged and 31%, most of them residents of Moscow and St.Petersburg (53%), claiming that it has been growing. Only 7% of those polled said NATO's influence has been waning, compared to 12% in 2009.

Russians see the Alliance's main task as that of defending the interests of its members - the U.S. and other countries (28% each). Twenty-four and seventeen percent of respondents, respectively, described NATO's mission as "aggression against other countries" or "deterring Russia and China." Some Russians expressed solidarity with the Alliance's positively worded mission of fighting against terrorism (19%), illicit drug business (10%) and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (16%).

Regarding NATO's tasks, the positive and negative judgments expressed were relatively balanced.

The poll was conducted in autumn 2011 in 138 populated areas of 48 Russian regions.

Keywords: Russia, Government, Politics - Russia News - Russia

 

MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - Forty-eight percent of Russian citizens polled recently have the right idea of what NATO is and they described the Alliance in neutral tones as a military bloc (37%), or as an international alliance (11%), the state-run pollster VTSIOM told Interfax.

One tenth of those polled see NATO as "an aggressive organization". Another 10% described it as an American organization and 4% as a peacekeeping alliance, VTSIOM said.

The percentage of respondents who deem NATO an aggressive organization has shrunk from 15% to 9% over the past two years, while that of neutrally-biased respondents has increased from 42% to 48%.

Meanwhile, half of respondents polled said their opinion of NATO was negative. Negative attitudes vary depending on the respondents' age group, from 40% among young people to 55% among citizens of pre-pension age. The strongest critics of NATO are supporters of the Communist Party (59%). Only 13 of respondents polled have a positive opinion of NATO, and they are primarily supporters of the United Russia party (16%), and well-off or young citizens (21% each). Compared to 2009 the share of negative judgments has reduced from 58% to 50%, and positive grew from 8% to 13%.

Opinions on the extent of NATO's influence vary, with 35% of those questioned saying that this influence remains unchanged and 31%, most of them residents of Moscow and St.Petersburg (53%), claiming that it has been growing. Only 7% of those polled said NATO's influence has been waning, compared to 12% in 2009.

Russians see the Alliance's main task as that of defending the interests of its members - the U.S. and other countries (28% each). Twenty-four and seventeen percent of respondents, respectively, described NATO's mission as "aggression against other countries" or "deterring Russia and China." Some Russians expressed solidarity with the Alliance's positively worded mission of fighting against terrorism (19%), illicit drug business (10%) and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (16%).

Regarding NATO's tasks, the positive and negative judgments expressed were relatively balanced.

The poll was conducted in autumn 2011 in 138 populated areas of 48 Russian regions.