Three-quarters of Russians believe the United States abuses its power and few have confidence in Barack Obama's foreign policy, a poll found ahead of the U.S. president's visit to Moscow on Monday, according to Reuters. The University of Maryland survey found that only two percent of Russians had "a lot of confidence" Obama would do the right thing in world affairs in a sign of the difficulties he faces trying to "reset" strained ties with the Kremlin. Obama is to hold talks with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a two-day visit that is expected to make progress on arms cuts and cooperation on Afghanistan. But talks are likely to be overshadowed by deep divisions over U.S. plans to set up an anti-missile system in central Europe and NATO efforts to expand into the former Soviet Union. Ties hit their worst level since the Cold War last year after Russia sent troops into neighbouring Georgia, a U.S. ally, triggering fierce condemnation from Washington. According to the survey of 800 Russians, 55 percent said they had no confidence or not much confidence that Obama would do the right thing internationally, one of the lowest levels among 20 nations polled, the university said in a statement. Twenty-one percent said they had some confidence and the remainder said they did not know. Disapproval of U.S. foreign policy was down from the 66 percent in a 2008 poll during the administration of Obama's predecessor George W. Bush. But the number of people who said the United States "abuses its greater power" to make Russia do what it wants climbed to 75 percent from 69 percent last year. The face-to-face survey was carried out on May 22-26 in association with the Levada Center, an independent Russian polling organisation.
