More Americans see Russia as a serious problem rather than as an adversary, a latest survey shows.
A Pew Research Center survey done in late March shows that 43 percent of people in the United States consider Russia as a serious problem and just 26 percent describe it as an adversary while 22 percent say the country is not much of a problem. Public concern seems to have gone up a notch since the recent annexation of Crimea by Russia
The adversary ratings for Russia increased by 8 points since last November where just 18 percent of those surveyed considered it as an opponent. 36 percent thought Russia was a serious problem then. But surprisingly, number of people who do not think of Russia as much of a problem fell by almost half - from 40 percent last November to 22 percent today, the survey found
The survey also revealed that Republicans were more likely to see Russia as an adversary than the Democrats. They were also supportive of military intervention. Overall, only 6 percent of the survey participants wanted U.S. military intervention in Russia. But 52 percent of the surveyors said they would not like the U.S. to get too involved in the situation. Nearly one-quarter of people say the U.S. should only consider economic and political options.
According to Pew, this was the first time since 2008 that the Americans have viewed Russia as a more major concern than China.
But, The Atlantic stated that post-Cold War and after 9/11, Americans did not particularly perceive any country as its opponent, as opposed to terrorists who are seen as the sole enemy of the U.S.
