The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice strongly opposed the trend for the Russian people to regard the US as a potential enemy while being interviewed by a Russian radio station.

In an interview to the Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy, Condoleezza Rice said the US should be treated better among the Russians and quite deserves the status of an adversary or at least an ally.

The expectations have almost nothing to do with the recent polls conducted in Russia that showed the majority of the population in Russia disagrees with the statement that the US is a friend to Russia. That means the US has to do a lot to change the view in an attempt to cooperate with Russia in struggling the international terrorism and changing its hostile policy against the former USSR countries.

The visit of Condoleezza Rice to Russia was initially aimed at improving the situation with human rights in the country that tends to authoritarian regime in its policy under the President Vladimir Putin who, due to the Bush administration, has stepped aside the principles of democracy proclaimed some fifteen years ago after the collapse of the USSR.

The interview with Ekho Moskvy’s Alexei Venediktov also showed that the percentage of Russians that do not desire the US to interfere with the Russian internal policy is still very high. An unscientific poll of the radio listeners revealed that 46% of those asked think the US is an enemy to Russia.

"We’re overcoming a lot of very long-held attitudes that were reinforced and reinforced in the schools, and the textbooks, and in public life," said Ms. Rice. "It takes a long time to overcome attitudes when people have been told that it’s a zero-sum game between the U.S. and the Soviet Union."