Russians More Positive About EU Than About US - Poll
Moscow, 17 October: Russians are currently better disposed towards the EU than towards the United States.
According to findings of a poll conducted in 45 regions of the country at the end of September, some 67 per cent of respondents have a positive attitude towards the EU and 61 per cent towards the US (the figures for negative attitudes are 18 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively). The Levada Centre public opinion research agency told Interfax today that Russians' attitudes towards the US and the EU had hardly changed since July.
A total of 75 per cent of Russians are today positive about neighbouring Belarus, against 68 per cent three months ago. The proportion of positive responses with regard to Ukraine has grown by 6 per cent (from 65 per cent to 71 per cent). 
Asked if respondents considered Ukraine and Belarus to be foreign countries, 60 per cent of Russians said they were not. In contrast, 56 per cent of respondents said they saw Georgia as foreign (some 37 per cent said they did not).
The majority of Russians (65 per cent) disagreed with the statement that Russia should try to control former Soviet republics by any means, even by force if required. More than one-quarter of respondents (27 per cent) said that such a policy would be correct.
Asked to evaluate Russia's relations with CIS countries in the past 12 years, 30 per cent of Russians said that the relations had improved and 28 per cent said they had not. Some 33 per cent of respondents said that these relations had not changed.
As regards relations with the West, about one-half of respondents (49 per cent) believe that there has been progress. Another 11 per cent of respondents said the relations had deteriorated and 33 per cent said that they had stayed unchanged.
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