Russians trust Armenians more but prefer Azerbaijani president

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev enjoys more trust among Russians than his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Center's recent survey.

The polls conducted in 38 Russian cities and towns on October 24-26 reveal that only 4% of 1,600 respondents considered Sargsyan a reliable leader, while 5% gave preference to Azerbaijan's Aliyev.

The most reliable state leader, according to the survey, is Kazakh President Norsultan Nazarbaev (32%). Ukraine's Yanukovich comes next (17%).

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko's rating has decreased to 16% compared to last year's 33%.

Uzbek, Kyrgiz and Turkmenistani leaders Islam Karimov, Roza Otunbayeva and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov had even lower approval rates. They each received 2% of the respondents' trust.

Moldovan, Tajik and Georgian presidents have each received 1%.

Some 35% of Russians consider Kazakhstan to be the most successful CIS country. The next countries in the top three list are Belarus (31%) and Ukraine (19%).

As for Armenia, it is considered a successful country only by 9% of the Russians. The next country in the list is Azerbaijan, with its 6% rating.

Moldova and Turkmenistan have each received 3%.

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which have received 2% and 1% respectively, are the lowest-rated countries.

The survey results further reveal that Russians find Kazakhstan (37% ) to be their most reliable partner among the CIS countries. The second state in the rating list is Belarus (23%), followed by Ukraine (21%).

Only 6% of the respondents considered Armenia a reliable partner. Some 4% said Moldova could serve as such a country, and only 3% gave preference to Azerbaijan or Ukraine. The least reliable countries in the rating list were Kygyzstan, Turkmenistan (each having 2%) and Georgia (1%).