NEW YORK: Americans are more concerned than they were before the 2016 US presidential campaign began about the potential threat Russia poses to the country, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday.
The Jan. 9-12 survey found that 82 percent of American adults, including 84 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of Republicans, described Russia as a general “threat” to the US. That’s up from 76 percent in March 2015 when the same questions were asked.
The increased concern comes after a brutal election season during which Democrats and others raised questions about President-elect Donald Trump’s financial ties to Russia and the US intelligence community accused Russia of engaging in cybertattacks during the election.
Trump, who has repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader and signaled during his campaign that he might take a softer line in dealing with Moscow, only recently accepted that Russia committed the hacks after receiving detailed briefings from intelligence officials.
Trump initially criticized the findings, saying the culprit could be China or “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.”
The poll asked people to rate Russia and a slew of other countries on a 5-point scale ranging from “no threat” to “imminent threat.” It found that Americans were more likely to label Russia a threat than they were Iran, Syria, China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba or Yemen. Only North Korea ranked higher, with 86 percent of Americans labeling it as a threat.
Some 25 percent of Americans gave Russia the highest concern, labeling it an “imminent threat.”
“Russia is back to the old days of the Cold War,” said Oneita Wilkins, 69, a Republican who lives in a suburb of New Orleans, who rated Russia an “imminent threat.”
Wilkins did not vote in the election. She said she did not trust Trump or Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and chose to not vote for the first time in more than 40 years.
The latest reports about Russian hacking lowered her opinion of Trump even further. “Trump doesn’t have any experience with other countries,” Wilkins said. “I have a feeling that he’ll be easily influenced by Putin.”
Trump, earlier this week in his first news conference since the election, defended his goal of better ties with Putin, saying, “If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability.”
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English in all 50 states. It included 1,169 American adults, including 490 Democrats and 475 Republicans. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points for the entire sample and 5 percentage points for Republicans and Democrats.
Americans considering Russia a threat: Survey
Americans considering Russia a threat: Survey
Poland’s foreign minister says it should not exclude the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine
“We should not exclude any option. Let Putin be guessing as to what we will do”
WARSAW: Poland’s foreign minister says the NATO nation should not exclude the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine and should keep Russian President Vladimir Putin in suspense over whether such a decision would ever be made.
Radek Sikorski made the comments in an interview published Tuesday in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
“We should not exclude any option. Let Putin be guessing as to what we will do,” Sikorski said when asked whether he would send Polish troops to Ukraine.
Sikorski said he has gone to Ukraine with his family to deliver humanitarian aid.
But a spokesperson for Poland’s Defense Ministry, Janusz Sejmej, told Polish media on Tuesday he had “no knowledge of that” when asked about a report in Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine suggesting Poland might send troops to Ukraine.
The idea of sending foreign soldiers to Ukraine, which is battling Russian military aggression, was floated earlier this year in France, but no country, including Poland, has publicly embraced it.
Poland supports neighboring Ukraine politically and by providing military equipment and humanitarian aid.
Baby found dead in stricken migrant boat heading for Italy
- The infant girl, her mother and 4-year-old sister were in an unseaworthy boat laden with migrants that had set off from Sfax in Tunisia
- SOS Humanity workers aboard its “Humanity 1” vessel found many of the migrants exhausted
LAMPEDUSA, Italy: The body of a five-month-old baby was found on Tuesday when some 85 migrants heading for Italy from Tunisia were rescued from distress at sea, according to a Reuters witness.
The infant girl, her mother and 4-year-old sister were in an unseaworthy boat laden with migrants that had set off from Sfax in Tunisia two days earlier bound for Italy, according to charity group SOS Humanity.
SOS Humanity workers aboard its “Humanity 1” vessel found many of the migrants exhausted and suffering from seasickness and fuel burns as they were rescued before dawn on Tuesday, the group said in a statement.
Some 185 migrants rescued in separate operations this week, including the stricken boat overnight, were being taken aboard “Humanity 1” to the port of Livorno in northwest Italy. Another 120 migrants were transferred by coast guard boat to the Italian island of Lampedusa in the southern Mediterranean.
Tunisia is grappling with a migrant crisis and has replaced Libya as the main departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict further south in Africa as well as the Middle East in hopes of a better life in Europe.
Italy has sought to curb migrant arrivals from Africa, making it harder charity ships to operate in the Mediterranean, limiting the number of rescues they can carry out and often forcing them to make huge detours to bring migrants ashore.
Putin says Ukraine should hold presidential election
- Zelensky has not faced an election despite the expiry of his term
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Ukraine should hold a presidential election following the expiry of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-year term.
Zelensky has not faced an election despite the expiry of his term, something he and Kyiv’s allies deem the right decision in wartime. Putin said the only legitimate authority in Ukraine now was parliament, and that its head should be given power.
US cautions UK against censuring Iran over nuclear program: Report
- Britain, France expected to condemn Tehran in resolution at IAEA meeting
- Washington seeking to avoid Mideast escalation amid simmering tensions
LONDON: The US has warned the UK against condemning Iran’s nuclear program at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency next week, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Amid simmering tensions in the Middle East and a US presidential election in November, Washington is reportedly seeking to avoid a regional escalation.
At an IAEA board of governors’ meeting next week, the UK and France are expected to deliver a censuring resolution against Iran over its nuclear program.
But the US is said to have warned other countries to abstain from the resolution, which was drafted over growing frustration with Tehran’s defiance of the IAEA.
Officials in the US have denied lobbying against the British and French move.
As well as electoral concerns, the White House also fears that Iran may be prone to instability following last month’s exchange of strikes with Israel, and the death of the country’s president and foreign minister in a helicopter crash.
UK officials believe that Iran’s nuclear program is as advanced as ever and are “deeply concerned” about escalation, the Daily Telegraph reported.
From June 3-7, the 35-member IAEA board of governors will gather for a quarterly meeting.
Iran is believed to have been enriching uranium to 60 percent purity for three years, following Washington’s axing of the nuclear deal under former President Donald Trump.
Tehran has maintained that it seeks to use the uranium for a civil nuclear program. But the IAEA has warned that no country has enriched to 60 percent purity without later developing nuclear weapons.
Last week, a senior European diplomat described Iranian nuclear violations as “unprecedented” in comments to Reuters.
“There is no slowing down of its programme and there is no real goodwill by Iran to cooperate with the IAEA,” the diplomat said. “All our indicators are flashing red.”
Danish parliament rejects proposal to recognize Palestinian state
- The Danish bill was first proposed in late February by four left-wing parties
- “We cannot recognize an independent Palestinian state, for the sole reason that the preconditions are not really there,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said
COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s parliament on Tuesday voted down a bill to recognize a Palestinian state, after the Danish foreign minister previously said the necessary preconditions for an independent country were lacking.
Ireland, Spain and Norway on Tuesday formally recognized a Palestinian state, after their announcement last week that they would do so angered Israel which called the move a “reward for terrorism” and recalled its ambassadors.
The Danish bill was first proposed in late February by four left-wing parties.
“We cannot recognize an independent Palestinian state, for the sole reason that the preconditions are not really there,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said when the bill was first debated in parliament in April.
“We cannot support this resolution, but we wish that there will come a day where we can,” Rasmussen, who was not present at the vote on Tuesday, added.
Denmark has, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, said that Israel has a right to defend itself, but has more recently urged the country to show restraint and maintained it must respect international law.
Dublin, Madrid and Oslo have painted their decision as a move aimed at accelerating efforts to secure a ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, and have urged other countries to follow suit.
