BEIJING, March 20 -- Russians have the most favorable view of China among nine countries polled in a survey on the country's image carried out by research center of the Chinese foreign ministry.

Russians gave China's image 7.6 points out of 10, higher than those polled in India, Brazil and even China itself, according to the poll of 4,500 people, released on Wednesday.

China's high score among Russians manifested the rapidly developing relations between the two nations, the survey's authors said.

China's image improved by an average 0.8 points in comparison to last year's survey.

Some 46 percent of the pollees think China has a "fast growing economy" and people there "have a relatively high standard of living," while 45 percent of them believe China is a country "with a relatively big gap between the rich and poor."

In 2014, Russia and China clinched a landmark deal worth 400 billion U.S. dollars for deliveries of Russian gas over 30 years. The two countries have also actively cooperated in many other areas such as counter-terrorism defense and trade.