Dmitry Litvinovich: Russia and USA - friends or enemies?

Recently, it has become very fashionable to carry out polls connected with different events. The Public Opinion fund regularly runs polls on the following subject: “In your opinion, is the US a friendly or an unfriendly state toward Russia?” As usual, there are three variants of answer: “a friendly one," “an unfriendly one," and “it is difficult to answer."

Polls were carried out in February, in September, and in November of this year. The dynamics are very interesting. In February, 52 percent of people expressed their negative attitude to America, while in September, only 46 percent held a negative attitude. The percentage of people positively relating to the US was 32 and 38 percent, respectively. The percentage of people who could not determine their attitude was 15 percent in February and 16 percent in September. The September 11 events have influenced the results of the polls. Russians that know the reality of the explosion of an apartment building sympathized with the Americans. However, many people noticed that we had not heard any words of sympathy from the US when there were terrorist explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk.

The poll carried out in this November showed a little more optimistic result, though the difference with September results was not big. The negative attitude toward the US was still 43 percent of the people (in September, it was 46 percent). This was equal to the amount of people who responded positively(while in September, their number made 38 percent).

Therefore, a conclusion can be made that there are more pluses than minuses in the relations between Russia and the US. However, it would be too early to speak about global warming in the bilateral relations. We have been enemies for a very long time, so we cannot become friends in a moment. And besides, an instinctive pragmatism does not allow to us to believe in the Americans’ sincerity.

Dmitry Litvinovich PRAVDA.Ru

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2001/11/14/33785.html