Twenty-one per cent of TV viewers didn’t know the goal of the operation. In mid-March, Aleksei Miniailo, a former social entrepreneur and current opposition politician, oversaw another telephone survey with the aim of trying to capture the effects of fear and propaganda on survey data. He told me that, when researchers added the option “I don’t want to answer this question,” twelve per cent of those surveyed opted for this answer—a number that he presumed, given the atmosphere, was made up nearly entirely of those who opposed the war. And that figure came from among those who agreed to participate at all; Miniailo suspected that the polls were not capturing a majority of the real antiwar sentiment, whatever its size. FilterLabs tries to address this shortcoming by constantly gathering data from small local internet forums, social media companies and messaging apps to determine public sentiment.
- Many misunderstandings about Russia derive from a long-term reluctance in the West to grapple with how Russians see the world.
- Ukraine’s president earlier signed a decree instructing the government to develop a plan for preserving the national identity of the “historically inhabited lands” of Krasnodar Krai, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov.
- The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank said fears of “hypothetical Nato attacks” meant the Leningrad Oblast was not well-placed to defend attacks by Ukrainian drones coming from the south.
- Some of those against the invasion have gathered in Pushkin square in the centre of Moscow to protest.
- Volkov told Inskeep that he's aware of the pitfalls with these polls, but they may still have valuable information to teach us.
I really cannot understand why Russians don’t have the right to eat in McDonald’s. Of course, that may be a strange example, but I just mean those of us who are against war still suffer from it. Due to Russian cards getting blocked and Russia being disconnected from SWIFT (the international payment system), my family had to send me some money in advance, just in case, and I had to withdraw it really quickly before I lost access to it. I have a colleague in my laboratory who is a reviewer at an open access science publisher.
Ukraine invasion — explained
Koneva said her research group has focused on examining the opinions of the core audience that supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. Volkov found that some 80% of respondents do support the military, but that group is by no means a monolith. He says about 50% have "definite support" without any qualms, but the other 30% have support with reservations. A couple walk in front of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower and St Basil's cathedral in downtown Moscow.
(These surveys were conducted before Mr Putin announced his mobilisation drive.) But these shocking figures are deceptive. Public opposition to the war can result in criminal prosecution, so people who are critical of the war and the regime are less likely to agree to speak to a pollster. https://euronewstop.co.uk/how-big-is-ukraine-compared-to-uk.html results in skewed samples and inflates the level of support for the war. Yet Volkov added that this tolerance, however passive, is likely to remain quite stable, even strong.
… Russia initiating military action towards Ukraine in the near future
President Joe Biden announced “swift and severe” sanctions on Feb. 22 that could harm Russia. Russia’s economy already faces high inflation and low projected growth. Polls conducted since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 consistently show that most Russians support the independence of the two self-declared republics in the Donbas.
People have young children to look after, cancer and other illnesses to manage, aging parents to care for. It’s easy to imagine that they feel they can’t—or don’t want to—get arrested for opposing a distant war because of these kinds of responsibilities, even if it is being waged in their name. This war is based in no small part on dehumanizing Ukrainians as a group. You can be horrified by what Russia has done and is doing—as of course I am—and, at the same time, be concerned about dehumanizing a whole group of people in response. But, at the same time, I can understand why this might seem like sophistry to Ukrainians who have lost their homes, their friends, and seen their fellow Ukrainians tortured and murdered. None of us wanted this war, and we stand in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions.
Russia threatens to seize £226bn in revenge for Western asset seizures
I got a government email saying that we had until March 14 to download all files from Instagram. We have VK (a Russian substitute for Facebook), but it’s not the same. Their town has been directly affected, so we are worried about them. Right now, they are relatively safe, but it’s a constant worry for my family. I was planning to go see my family right about this time, but it doesn’t seem possible any more. I mean – there is probably a way to go to Russia, but almost zero way for me to come back to study, and as a new semester is coming, I’m not risking it.
While 80% of poll respondents say they support Russia's military, some have mixed feelings. One ex senior minister suggested to me that there was a generational divide between those who had lived with the threat of the Cold War era, and those who had not. The former minister, currently a serving Conservative MP, pointed out that the prime minister grew up without that existential threat.
- Bankrolled by high energy prices over the last two decades, the public has acquiesced to Putin’s autocratic rule in exchange for improved living standards and functional public services.
- “Analysts have learned to deal with and avoid authoritarian pressure,” said Koneva, founder of independent research agency ExtremeScan.
- The government says it wants to spend 2.5% of national income on defence - but has still not said when.
One Whitehall source told the Times that the training of Ukrainian civilians on UK soil could act as a rehearsal for rapid Army expansion. Cuts have already seen the size of the British Army fall from more than 100,000 in 2010 to around 73,000 now. Gen Sanders said that within the next three years the British Army needed to be 120,000 strong with the addition of reserves. But he said even that is not enough - so the Army should be designed to expand rapidly "to enable the first echelon, resource the second echelon, and train and equip the citizen army that must follow". But others have responded by "prepping for war" - stocking food and fuel.
Now, those who want to publish and are affiliated with Russia have been asked to withhold applications, though they have not yet been officially withdrawn. The same thing with conferences – international events that take place in Moscow are all cancelled. And other specialised apps, like Matlab (a programming and computing platform) and Coursera (an online course platform).
Ukraine has been able to strike multiple targets near St Petersburg in recent days because the region’s anti-air defences are “poor”. The national guard is controlled by the interior ministry and is responsible for internal security, public order and guarding critical infrastructure. “Foreign volunteers who took up arms to defend Ukraine, all those who fight for Ukraine’s freedom as if it were their homeland,” Mr Zelensky said.
- This results in skewed samples and inflates the level of support for the war.
- Perhaps unsurprisingly, most people in Ukraine disagree with the use of force against them.
- The same day, Putin ratified treaties with the two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine – the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic – that have Russian-backed political leadership.
- Thousands of non-Ukrainians have served in its armed forces since Russia’s invasion in 2014.
- That the Kremlin was right to block the majority of independent media sites they used to read.
One of my friends is against our government while her grandmother supports them, and I know that’s caused a quarrel between them. On one hand, it’s affected everyone – psychologically, economically, and in many other ways. And on the other hand, I understand that we could be hurt if we did something to try and change it. People are arrested for even walking around the area where a protest was scheduled.