Daily Times

ZURICH: A Gallup poll has revealed that citizens of four of the countries among the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATIO) prefer to rely on Russia rather than on the United States.

According to reports in the Russian media, between October and December 2016, Gallup International surveyed around a thousand people in 66 countries. The survey posed the question to citizens that who would be their go-to-ally if they were attacked. Many preferred the military prowess of the United States but people from Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Slovenia, all members of NATO, preferred to count on Russia in face of threats.

The views expressed by citizens of these four countries are indicative of changing perceptions and the shifting power dynamics with regards to US’s role in global security.

Other countries which preferred Russia over America when it came to protection from threats included China, Iran and Serbia. Iraq, Bosnia, and Ukraine were divided evenly between the United States and Russia.

Gallup Vice President Kancho Stoychev told media that this survey showed that, over the last 20 years, US policy has forced Russia to move closer to China. He further opined that favourable sentiments towards Russia in Greece and Bulgaria could be a result of fear of Turkey.

Other European countries also prefer the United Kingdom as a partner against aggression. In Sweden, for example, people who look to the UK for protection are almost the same number as those who look to the US for protection. It could be a possibility that these countries are being pushed away from the US due to the comments of Donald Trump who recently referred to the NATO as obsolete.

Although, under the new administration in the United States, the US and NATO have continued to build-up their military resources in eastern Europe.

NATO was founded in 1949 as a mutual defense pact between the US, Canada and mainlu Western European countries in order to counter the rising Soviet influence creeping in from the east of Europe. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the NATO alliance has expanded and now included countries formerly part of the Soviet Bloc.