Most Russians don't see NATO as Russia's partner and are convinced that the bloc's eastward expansion is a threat to the country's security, show the results of a poll by a state-run pollster released on Tuesday.
34 percent of respondents are convinced that the bloc is a threat to Russia's security, down 7 percentage points from 2009. An equal number of respondents said they though the bloc is not Russia's partner but that it poses no real threat to Russia.
Only 8 percent of respondents said NATO was Russia's partner.
"Most of those who consider NATO a threat are supporters of the A Just Russia party (47 percent), the Communist party of Russia (42 percent), as well as Muscovites and residents of St. Petersburg. Those who don't see NATO as a threat are mostly residents of towns (41 percent)," the pollster said in a report.
"At the same time, the number of those who think that NATO's eastward expansion poses no threat to Russia's security grew from 15 percent to 21 percent in the reported period," the report reads.
The respondents who are worried about NATO expansion are mostly A Just Russia supporters (79 percent), residents of large cities (73 percent) and people of pre-retirement age or older (62-65 percent).
Those who don't see NATO's eastward expansion as a threat support non-parliamentary parties (26 percent) and are mostly young people.
The poll was conducted on October 22-23 among 1,600 respondents from 138 cities and towns in 46 Russian regions.
