MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax) - Thirty-six percent of people surveyed by the Levada Center believe pressure should be exerted on Ukraine in the current situation to cause it to change its policies.
The poll, which surveys 1,600 people living in 134 populated areas in 46 regions of Russia, was conducted on October 23-26.
Twenty-eight percent of respondents, for their part, said "Ukraine should be helped to get back on its feet and be given technological and energy assistance to reconcile and release the tension of confrontation."
Thirty-six percent of respondents were undecided.
Respondents were divided on the way Russian-Ukrainian relations will develop in the next few years. Fifty percent expect their restoration (of these respondents, only 6% believe it will happen soon) and 41% believe relations will stay as they are or will get worse. Ten percent of respondents were undecided.
Fifty-four percent of respondents said they are neutral about the possibility of Ukraine's association with the EU, saying this issue is an internal affair of Ukraine (against 60% in December 2014). At the same time, 27% are negative about this possibility, saying that "it constitutes betrayal of Slavic unity and Ukraine should have entered the Customs Union with Russia" (against 22% in December 2014).
Another 5% (as a year ago) are positive about this, saying that "integration in the EU will give a new impetus to the socio-economic and political development of Ukraine." Fifteen percent of respondents were undecided.
In the meantime, according to the sociologists, Russians' interest in the events in Ukraine is declining, with only 41% of respondents following the events there (against 50% in May and 59% in January).
Sixteen percent of respondents said they take no interest in the events in Ukraine at all (against 11% in May and 5% in January) and 42% of respondents pay no special attention to this issue (against 37% and 35%, respectively).
Russians generally see the situation in eastern Ukraine as tense (64%) and critical (15%). Eleven percent of respondents characterized the situation as calm and 1% called it good.