Moscow - In the past two months the attitude of Russian citizens towards Ukraine has gotten worse, Belarus is most liked, and the United States is most disliked, Levada Center sociologists told Interfax.
According to the poll Levada Center conducted on July 18-21 among 1,600 respondents, 55% of Russians currently have negative attitudes towards Ukraine, which is up 6 percent in comparison with the survey held in May (49%), while in January the share of people supporting this stance was only 26 %.
At that, 40% of Russian citizens are convinced that Russia and Ukraine currently have hostile relations, 39% note tension between the two states, 8% think that Russia and Ukraine treat each other coldly, and 6 percent are certain that the parties are neutral, the survey showed.
Sixty four per cent lay all the blame on the Ukrainian authorities for the deterioration of relations between Moscow and Kyiv, 21% think the Ukrainian authorities escalate the conflict, 8% suppose that the two parties are equally responsible for the deterioration, and 3% believe that Russia is the main reason for the escalation of issues in the Russian-Ukrainian dialogue, sociologists said.
Meanwhile, the negative attitude of Russian citizens towards the U.S. has become more common – currently 74% support this stance (against 71% in May). The share of people who like the U.S. remained unchanged and is 18%, while 9% failed to respond, the poll showed.
When asked about Georgia, 45% said they liked it, 38% said the disliked this country, 18% failed to state a specific opinion about Georgia (against 51%, 36%, and 14% respectively in January).
Meanwhile, 52% admit they have good attitude towards Israel, 22% do not like it, and 26% failed to respond, sociologists said.
Traditionally, Russian citizens have the best attitude towards Belarus – 81% of respondents speak nicely of it, 12% dislike it, and 7% failed to assess their attitude, the poll showed.
