Four percent want Ukraine to be a rival, and one percent describes it as a probable enemy. Moscow, February 8 (Interfax) - The majority of Russians want Ukraine to be a Russian ally although the general evaluation of Moscow-Kyiv relations has drifted to negative in the recent decade, a source at the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) told Interfax on Feb. 8.

The number of Russians who laud bilateral relations declined by more than five times, from 50% in 2000 to 9% in 2010, and the number of those who criticize the relations grew from 22% to 65%, the source said.

The number of Russians who think the relations are neutral has been steady, 19-22%, through all that period, he said.

The majority of Russians who negatively evaluate the bilateral relations are supporters of the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party (66%), and residents of the Northwestern and Urals Federal Districts (73% and 71% correspondingly). The majority of positive opinions (23%) were voiced in the Urals Federal District. The relations look neutral to supporters of the Just Russia Party and the Liberal Democratic Party (27% and 25%) and residents of the Central Federal District (25%).

Sixty percent of the respondents polled in 42 Russian regions in January said that Ukraine should be a friend and an ally. The opinion was mostly voiced by supporters of the Communist Party and the Just Russia Party (73% and 72%) and people who evaluate the bilateral relations as bad or neutral (61-62%).

Twenty-seven percent of the respondents wish Ukraine to be a strategic and economic partner of Russia, including 29% of Liberal Democratic Party supporters and 36% of the respondents who positively evaluate the bilateral relations.

Four percent want Ukraine to be a rival, and one percent describes it as a probable enemy.