According to the results of a public opinion survey released on Thursday, most Russians are positive about U.S. President Barack Obama.
A poll from the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) revealed that some 29% of respondents respected the American leader, up two percentage points from a similar survey conducted last year.
In addition, one third of respondents (33%) said that though they did not approve some of Obama's policies, they respected the choice of the U.S. people. The figure is up 10 percentage points from last year.
Those who said the United States needed another leader were a small minority. A total of 32% of the respondents were unable to give an answer to the question.
Of those questioned, 46% said Russian-U.S. relations are "fine and calm," 16% - "neighborly," 7% - "friendly," 17% - "cold," 5% - "tense" and 1% - "hostile."
Some 46% of Russians believe that relations between the two countries improved since Obama took office, while 38% say there were no serious changes.
Some 1,600 people in 140 localities in 42 regions took part in the poll conducted on January 16-17, with a statistical margin of error of 3.4%.
MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti)
