The majority of Americans (59%) regard Russia’s ongoing invasion of neighboring Georgia as a threat to U.S. national security, but less than a third (31%) believe the United States should take any diplomatic action against Russia.

A similar number (33%) say the United States should not take diplomatic action against Russia, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken Monday night. A plurality (36%) remain undecided.

Just over half (51%) also believe that John McCain is the best equipped of the two major presidential candidates to handle a similar crisis in the future, while 36% believe Barack Obama is the better of the two to deal with this kind of situation. The two men are locked in a close race as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Americans say they have been following news stories on Russia attacking Georgia. Russia launched a massive military offensive against its southern neighbor on Friday after Georgia sent troops into the province of South Ossetia to seize control of it. The two countries have been bickering over ownership of South Ossetia since it broke from Georgia in the early 1990s.

World leaders have been increasingly critical of Russia, particularly once its forces began moving into Georgia proper and since the president of the embattled country agreed to a cease-fire. President Bush late Monday demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from Georgia and accept international mediation to end the crisis, although White House officials admitted privately there was little the United States could do to back up the demand.

Shortly after Bush’s comments, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered a halt to military actions in Georgia, a former Soviet republic which has had increasingly strained relations with Russia over the years since the break-up of the Soviet Union. Georgia has aggressively sought ties to the West, including membership in NATO, and to the United States in particular.

While some have suggested that the Georgia conflict signals a potential return to the tensions of the Cold War, Americans are fairly evenly divided over whether Russia is a growing national security problem. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say Russia is a growing problem, but 36% say it is not.

Women are more concerned than men over the Russia-Georgia situation. Sixty-three percent (63%) of women regard it as at least a somewhat serious threat to U.S. national security versus 54% of men who feel that way. Women also have more confidence in Obama to deal with a similar crisis than men do. Men prefer McCain to Obama in such a situation 56% to 30%, but 40% of women think Obama could handle it best. More women (46%), however, still think McCain is the man for the job.

Forty-percent (40%) of men believe the United States should take diplomatic action against Russia, although 35% disagree. Among women, only 23% think diplomatic action is called for, while 31% do not. For 39% of men and women, Russia is a growing national security problem, but 45% of men do not agree, compared to only 28% of women who feel that way.

Half of Republicans (50%) say Russia is a growing national security problem versus 33% of Democrats and 35% of unaffiliated voters. Twenty percent (20%) of both Republicans and Democrats agree Russia is a Very Serious threat to U.S. national security, a view shared by only 9% of unaffiliateds.

While 35% of Republicans think diplomatic action is necessary, only 29% of both Democrats and moderates agree. Thirty percent (30%) of GOP voters, 33% of Democrats and 35% of unaffiliateds feel no action is needed.

Although 85% of Republicans believe McCain is the better of the two presidential candidates to handle a similar crisis in the future, only 61% of Democrats feel that way about Obama. More than one-out-of-five Democrats (22%) think the Republican presidential candidate would handle it better than the prospective candidate of their own party. Only 8% of GOP voters favor Obama over McCain in such a situation. Among unaffiliated voters, 56% prefer McCain while 28% like Obama better.

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