Russians regard U.S. President Barack Obama more positively than at the beginning of his first term, but little change in bilateral ties is expected, said a state survey published Thursday.
Forty-eight percent of respondents said they would have voted for Obama, versus 4 percent for Republican rival Mitt Romney, according to the of 1,600 citizens across 46 regions by the VTsIOM public opinion agency.
However, only 19 percent of respondents said they "respected" Obama, and only one in 10 said they "trusted" him. These figures, though, beat the previously recorded 11 percent and one in 25, respectively.
Conversely, fewer Russians said they could rely on Obama, and two-thirds said they did not expect any significant changes in U.S.-Russian relations, double the number in 2009. The pollster said the margin of error was no more than 3.4 percent.
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