Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008

    MOSCOW, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Who in the United States presidential race will get a vote from a Russian? Most probably Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York rather than Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a latest poll shows.

    Of the 1,600 respondents to the poll carried out in mid-February by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), 19 percent said they would vote for Cliton but only 4 percent for Obama and one percent would vote for a different candidate if they could.

    In the poll conducted in 135 Russian regions, 19 percent of respondents believe that it will be better for Russia's national interests if a Democratic candidate wins the elections, while 4 percent prefer a Republican candidate, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday.

    Arizona Senator John McCain has won Republican nomination in the ongoing U.S. presidential race while Clinton and Obama are still struggling for the Democratic nomination as a candidate.

    Russians, following a March 2 voting for their own head of state, are more or less interested in the U.S. election campaign.

    The poll showed that one third of Russians are following the U.S. presidential race and nearly half said the outcome of the upcoming presidential U.S. elections will be important to Russia.

    Dmitry Medvedev, 42, has won Russia's election and become the state's youngest ever president-elect since 1917. He has pledged to continue outgoing President Vladimir Putin's policy.

    Relations between Moscow and Washington have been strained by an array of disputes, including U.S. plans to deploy units of its missile defense shield in eastern Europe that were fiercely rejected by Russia.