Russians expect relations with U.S. to improve after Obama's visit to Moscow - poll
MOSCOW. July 1 (Interfax) - Russians hope that Russian-U.S. relations will improve after the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Moscow; however, the majority said Russia should not drastically reduce its nuclear potential while the threat of the U.S. deploying a global missile defense system still exists, according to the results of a poll conducted amongst 1,600 respondents in 128 communities of 46 regions by the Levada-Center on June 19 - 22.
Every second Russian (49%) consider Moscow-Washington relations as "friendly, neighborly and calm," while 46% stick to the opposite opinion, saying that they are "tense and cool" or even "hostile," sociologists of the Levada-Center told Interfax on Wednesday.
The majority of Russians (42%) think that Russian-U.S. relations will improve after the July meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Obama; 39% think that they will not change, with 3% being certain of the pessimistic outcome, the pollsters said.
The number of people who think that Russian-U.S. relations improved with the election of Obama dropped 6% to 28% compared to this January, they said.
Asked whether Moscow should agree to Washington's proposal to drastically reduce the number of warheads and their delivery means given U.S. plans to deploy its missile defense system, 56% of Russians gave a negative answer, 25% support this move, with 19% being undecided.
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