Russian residents believe that Latvia is Russia's third most unfriendly country after Georgia and the United States, according to a survey carried out by the analytical center Levada, informs Inter Fax.

38% of respondents point out that the United States is unfriendly and hostile toward Russia, while 33% mention Georgia, writes LETA.

Russian residents believe that all Baltic States are unfriendly and hostile toward their country: Latvia – 21%, Lithuania – 17%, Estonia – 16%.

Meanwhile, 46% mention Belarus as the closest and most friendly country to Russia, 31% – Kazakhstan, followed by China, Ukraine and Germany.

Russia’s “enemies”

May 2005 May 2006 May 2007 May 09 May 2010 May 2011 May 2012 May 2013 USA 23 37 35 45 26 33 35 38 Georgia 38 44 46 62 57 50 41 33 Latvia 46 46 36 35 36 35 26 21 Lithuania 42 42 32 35 35 34 25 17 Estonia 32 28 60 30 28 30 23 16 Ukraine 13 27 23 41 13 20 15 11 Afganistan 12 12 11 7 14 15 8 10 United Kingdom 3 5 3 8 6 8 7 9 Poland 4 7 20 10 14 20 8 8 Japan 6 4 3 3 3 9 6 7 Irak 10 9 8 5 9 9 8 7 Iran 6 7 7 3 7 7 7 5 China 4 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 Korea (North) 1 <1 1 1 1 1 1 4 Azerbaijan 5 4 4 2 3 5 2 3

Source: levada.ru

1,600 people from 45 Russian regions took part in the survey.

Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity) believes that Russian residents' perception of Latvia as a hostile country towards Russia is a consequence of distorted information about Latvia by the Russian media.

As Dombrovskis told members of the press today, the results of the survey carried out in Russia is "no surprise", as similar surveys have been carried out in the past.

''This shows that the Russian media continues to present distorted information to the public about the processes and events taking place in Latvia,'' Dombrovskis said.