More Russians see China as friendly nation: poll

More Russians see China as a friendly nation, showed a latest Russian public opinion poll.

Of the 1,500 respondents in Russia's 43 regions, 77 percent said China is a friendly country to Russia.

The figure was 48 percent in 2006 when a similar poll was for the first time conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, a Russian pollster.

According to the poll results published Tuesday, 56 percent of the respondents said the Russia-China relationship has been on the rise.

Seventy percent believed that China's growth pace is faster than that of Russia, while over half of the respondents said China's rise poses no threat to Russia and 27 percent held the opposite opinion.

Meanwhile, one third of the respondents considered that relations with China and other Asian countries are more important to Russia than relations with the West.

Moreover, 32 percent of those polled complained that there is not adequate information about China in Russian media.

The Russia-China ties have been "in the best period in history," with all-around cooperation and exchanges strengthened at all levels and in various formats, according to the poll. Endi