Russians believe that at the moment their country has the friendliest relations with China, Belarus and Kazakhstan and most hostile relations — with the United States, suggests an opinion poll of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTSIOM) the results of which were made public on Wednesday, TASS announced.

As many as 51% of those polled said China had the friendliest attitude towards Russia among other countries. VTSIOM experts said that this figure has more than doubled over the past six years — from 23% in 2008. The top three of the friendliest countries towards Russia also includes Belarus (32% of the polled) and Kazakhstan (20%). Sociologists say that these states have been more often named Russia’s friends now, compared to 2008 (then 14 and 8% of the polled, respectively, were of this view). Meanwhile, only 2% of respondents regard Germany as a friend at present, while in 2008 a total of 17% were of this view.

Russians still regard the United States as the most hostile country to Russia. Six years ago, one-third of respondents were of this view (25% in 2008) and at present this figure has already reached three-thirds (73% in 2014).

The share of those who believe Russia’s relations with Ukraine are extremely strenuous has also considerably increased (from 21 to 32%).

The VTSIOM-initiated poll embraced 1,600 people in 132 Russian localities. The error margin is within 3.5%.