MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. As many as 48% of Russians expect that the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, held on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg on July 7, will produce positive results, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center said in a statement on Thursday.

"Almost half of Russians (48%) expect the personal conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to benefit Russia, while only one percent of those polled believe that the results will turn out negative," the statement reads. "The same 48% say that bilateral relations will improve, while two percent expect Russian-US ties to deteriorate and 41% believe that nothing will change," the pollster added.

A total of 85% of respondents said they were aware of the two presidents’ meeting. Among those who heard about the meeting, most people remembered the situation in Syria, the Ukrainian crisis, bilateral cooperation and the fight against terrorism as the main issues discussed by Putin and Trump.

Besides, Russians are now more inclined to have a soft spot for the White House occupant, as in July, the number of those giving a positive answer to the relevant question reached 27% (as compared with 13% in April), while the number of respondents disliking Trump declined from 39% to 22%. However, as many as 40% of those surveyed said they were indifferent to the US president.

"We can say with a high degree of certainty that society stands for maintaining the positive tone in relations between our countries," said Mikhail Mamonov, Director of the pollster’s research projects.

The nationwide poll involving 1,200 people was conducted on July 9-10, 2017. The margin of error does not exceed 3.5% at the 95% confidence level.