Half of the population of Serbia view the United States as an enemy but believe that good relations should be maintained with both Washington and Moscow, Institute for European Affairs said on Thursday citing the results of a poll.

One fourth of Serbians gave very low grades to Serbia-US relations while a third gave them a 3 out of a possible 5 grade and less than five percent said those relations deserve top marks.  

Half of the polled Serbians see the US as an enemy, 22 percent see it as a friend and 28 percent said they have no opinion. Most of the people who see the US as the enemy are aged 60 or more with the number of people sharing that view dropping the higher their education.  

A total of 57 percent believe that Serbia should maintain good relations with both Russia and the US and 40.9 percent what good relations with Russia while 4.3 percent prefer good relations with the US.  

Some 43 percent believe that Serbia’s relations with the US will get better in the future. That view is held mainly by women and people over the age of 45.

A solution to the Kosovo issue is the thing that would help improve relations with the US according to 21.6 percent of the polled while 12.8 percent said they would improve if Kosovo is returned to Serbia, 10.8 percent said an apology from NATO for the 1999 bombings along with war reparations and 8.1 percent feel they would improve if Serbia joins the European Union.

According to the poll, 39.4 percent of Serbians get information about relations with the US from TV, 22.2 percent from Internet portal, 16.4 percent from print media and 9.7 percent from social networks.