MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Russians that consider the threat of a military attack on their country as real see the US (63%) and Ukraine (31%) as potential aggressors, a survey conducted by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center shows.
"More than one third of Russians feel the military threat. They name the US (63% of respondents believe there exist an attack threat) and Ukraine (31%) as potential sources of aggression. They are followed by the NATO (7%), China (5%), the UK (4%), the Islamic State (IS, a terror organization outlawed in Russia - 4%), Syria (3%), Germany (3%), as well as other countries," sociologists say.
According to the survey, respondents expect allied support from China (41%), Belarus (25%) and Kazakhstan (18%). The former Soviet countries have around 20% of votes. There are those who expect support from the US and Ukraine (2%). Each tenth respondent said that Russia has no one to ask for help in case of a military attack.
"Hopes for improved Russian-US relations that Donald Trump’s election as the US President offered to our residents have not come true.
The intensified ant-Russian policy conducted by Kiev is taking a more overt shape. In these unfavorable foreign conditions, Russians tend to see the main military threat in the US and Ukraine, whereas they expect help from their CSTO allies (Belarus and Kazakhstan), as well as from their privileged strategic partner - China," Director General of the Russian Public Opinion Research Center, Valery Fedotov, commented on the survey results.
The nation’s leading polling agency conducted this survey on June 16 - June 17, 2017, among 1,200 full-aged respondents in a telephone interview. The static error is less than 3.5%.