Russia has overtaken North Korea as the country Americans consider their greatest enemy, as tensions between Washington and Moscow have been running high over the situation in Ukraine, according to a Gallup survey Monday.

Eighteen percent of the 837 adults, who responded in the Feb. 8-11 telephone poll, picked Russia as the greatest enemy of their country, a big jump from only 2 percent in 2012 and 9 percent in 2014, according to the results published on Gallup's website.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

North Korea was named the second-greatest U.S. enemy with 15 percent, a 1 percent drop from last year, followed by China with 12 percent, a fall from 20 percent in 2014, and Iran with 9 percent, a drop from 16 percent last year.

"Americans' basic views of Russia are the worst Gallup has measured in its 26-year trend, with 24 percent having favorable and 70 percent unfavorable views," Gallup said. "Russia's favorable rating has declined 10 points in each of the last two years. Just three years ago, Americans' views of Russia were more positive than negative."

Americans' ratings of Russian President Vladimir Putin are even worse than their ratings of the country more generally, as 13 percent have a favorable and 72 percent an unfavorable view of Putin, the survey showed.

"Recent U.S.-Russia foreign policy disagreements, including the situation in Ukraine, have taken a toll on U.S.-Russia relations, as well as on Americans' opinions of Russia. Americans increasingly see Russia's military power as a threat to the U.S. and rate Russia the worst they have since the Cold War ended," Gallup said.

The agency added that Americans' views of Russia could recover quickly if Russian and American policy interests find more common ground as Americans' attitudes about Russia have changed substantially in the past and have been quite positive at times. (Yonhap)