A negative opinion of Ukraine prevails in Russia over positive, the Levada Center pollster said.
A relative majority of Russia citizens negatively assess Russian-Ukrainian relations and 39% of respondents, polled in August, said Russian-Ukrainian relations are tense, cool and even hostile.
Just over one quarter of the respondents (28%) described them as friendly and good neighborly, and another 27% as neutral.
Ukraine’s incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych is not trusted by 49% of Russian respondents, trusted by 29% and 20% were undecided, while 3% did not know who he is.
Russian citizens’ mistrust in Yanukovych has been growing with every passing year, from 37% in May 2005, to 42% in October 2007 and 49% in 2011.
Asked whether they trust Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, 71% of respondents answered in the native and 7% in the affirmative.
The percentage of respondents who support the decision to bring Tymoshenko to justice is twice as large as that of those who oppose this decision – 40% to 20%. Another 40% of Russian citizens are undecided.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office accused Tymoshenko of abusing her official powers when the gas contracts with Russia were being negotiated in 2009, which caused the sate budget to lose over UAH 1.5 billion.
The court hearings of the gas case started on June 24. Tymoshenko was arrested on August 5 on counts of "obstructing the effort to establish the truth," according to the prosecutors. Tymoshenko and her defense lawyers have applied 13 times for her release from custody, but all their requests have been rejected.
