MOSCOW, September 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - More than one in two Russians believe that the U.S. deserved the September 11 attacks, while over half of Russians are against U.S. offensive on Iraq according to opinion polls published Monday, September 9.

Fifty-two percent answered yes when asked if they agreed that “the Americans got what they deserved and know now how the people of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Iraq and Yugoslavia felt under bombardment,” the survey showed, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

According to the poll, carried out by the All Russian Public Opinion Center the main reason for the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan was “to show who rules the world” (22 percent).

Then came “vengeance” (20 percent), “the wish to uphold U.S. prestige in the world” (16 percent), while only 15 percent said the U.S. action was to “destroy terrorist bases.”

Another 11 percent pointed to “a desire to establish a U.S. military presence in Central Asia” while six percent of respondents explained the war in Afghanistan as “maintaining (U.S. President George W.) Bush’s prestige among Americans.”

However, Russians still have a positive attitude towards the United States.

Sixty-seven percent of those polled said they have a “very good” or “good” opinion of the United States.

Surveyors spoke with 1,600 Russians aged over 18 late last month.

Meanwhile, another opinion poll published Monday showed that fifty-three percent of Russians are against a U.S.-led military operation to oust Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

Twenty-six percent of respondents would support such an operation, while 21 percent were undecided, said the poll carried out by the All-Russian Public Opinion Center, which asked 1,600 Russians aged over 18 late last month.

In the same survey, 57 percent of respondents said Russia should maintain relations with Iraq, Iran and North Korea, three countries U.S. President George W. Bush labeled as forming an “axis of evil.”

Twenty-two percent held the opposite opinion and 21 percent were undecided.

The U.S. policy towards Iraq has met strong international opposition, including from Russia and France.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Sunday, September 8, that a U.S. military strike against Iraq would cause “irreparable damage” to the U.S.-led international campaign against “terrorism.”

President Vladimir Putin, called by Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair Friday, September 7, brushed aside their arguments for a military assault on Iraq.

Earlier, Moscow has angrily dismissed recent U.S. warnings that Russian economic ties with so-called rogue states may have a negative impact in the West, accusing Washington of being double-faced about trade with Iraq, and charging that U.S. companies were also dealing with Baghdad for commercial gain.