One-quarter of respondents say they already feel the effect of those sanctions, according to Volkov. People who are from disadvantaged groups are suffering the most, he adds, because they don't have the resources to adapt. "We are measuring public attitudes that, more or less, coincide with how people will behave in public," he adds. Volkov told Inskeep that he's aware of the pitfalls with these polls, but they may still have valuable information to teach us. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
- Another potential threat could come from anti-war politicians, whom Kremlin propagandists might seek to incite.
- He has worked in both London and Moscow, where he became an expert on Russian propaganda.
- "Trended data can also be very informative about the direction of changes in public opinion even if the magnitude is exaggerated."
The educated and the wealthy, many of them urban residents, are fleeing mobilisation. Those with more meagre resources are going to recruiting stations. They may be frightened and apprehensive, and not very keen to fight, but they are not ready to break away from the imaginary “national body” whose will and aspirations are expressed for them by Mr Putin. The fraught nature of their decisions to enlist will increase their hostility toward those who make the opposite choice. The idea may be that the departure of defectors will leave a more faithful nation that will fight and die without hesitation.
A refugee crisis is developing in Armenia. A political crisis will likely quickly follow
In the weeks leading up to Russia's invasion, I would walk for hours in the central Moscow district of Zamoskvorechiye, where I had lived and worked in the BBC office for seven years.
“The night of (the invasion), I was in a really great mood," recalls Ksenia. "My friend and I were celebrating February 23 (Day of the Defender of the Fatherland or, more commonly, Men’s Day). A journalist, soccer fanatic and Shrewsbury Town fan, Will’s love for the game has withstood countless playoff final losses. After graduating from the University of Liverpool he wrote for a number of British publications before joining AS USA in 2020. His work focuses on the Premier League, LaLiga, MLS, Liga MX and the global game. Speaking to CNBC Timothy Ash, an emerging markets strategist, said that Putin had “spectacularly miscalculated” the response in Russia to war with Ukraine. Meanwhile Russia's currency, the rouble, fell to an all-time low against the dollar and the euro.
‘Your country needs you’
The Levada Center stays within those parameters by asking whether people support the actions of the Russian military. A couple walk in front of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower and St Basil's cathedral in downtown Moscow. While 80% of poll respondents say they support Russia's military, some have mixed feelings.
- Meanwhile Russia's currency, the rouble, fell to an all-time low against the dollar and the euro.
- Still, he notes, the survey results reveal at least as much about what people are willing to say in public than about how they truly feel.
- Even during the London Blitz in 1941, nearly 5,000 looting cases came before the Old Bailey.
- "This is what people have been expecting, they have been waiting for, but no-one here can quite believe it's actually happening."
It was rather cheap, but now I want to buy AirPods and they’re really expensive. They were 7,000 roubles and now cost more than 14,000 roubles. 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. It’s hard to differentiate global problems from everyday ones, as you can see. But to combat the anxiety, we try to remember our connections with friends and family and enjoy the spring weather.
They are still trying to track Russian public opinion on key topics, including the war in Ukraine, providing a rare window into how the Russian public views the war’s dramatic turns over the last 18 months. With president Vladimir Putin also threatening nuclear retaliation, we would like to hear from Russians about how ordinary people are reacting to the latest developments in the war on Ukraine. Volkov adds that public opinion matters, even though the Russian government isn't taking the public's pulse in order to plan its next moves. He says officials are instead monitoring the situation to make sure that it's "under control."
But as time passed, I got used to it, no matter how terrible it was. People get used even to war, especially if they live far from the battleground. Some of the support is more passive, Botchkovar says, coming from Russian citizens who’ve placed their faith in Putin as a political leader, but who may not necessarily vocalize that support. https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-is-a-no-fly-zone-above-ukraine.html , she says, is a deep distrust of the West, rooted in decades of state propaganda.
Even during the London Blitz in 1941, nearly 5,000 looting cases came before the Old Bailey. If law and order really began to break down, security forces could be authorised to use lethal force against looters; neighbourhood vigilante groups might spring up. The decline in manufacturing means there are far fewer factories that can be converted to make arms, as happened in the Second World War, when car makers churned out Spitfire parts. And in a globalised world, many industries that are key in wartime rely on imports.
Russia has opened up at times after moments of calamity and catastrophe. That a sledgehammer is now a positive symbol of Russian power in executions captured on camera and posted by MPs on Twitter. In Pskov, near the Estonian and Latvian borders, the atmosphere is gloomy and everyone pretends the war has nothing to do with them, I am told.
A just-released poll by Russia’s Levada Center shows that Russians think the most hostile countries are the United States, followed by Ukraine, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania. Two-thirds of Ukrainians, but only a quarter of Russians, understand the conflict as a Russian-Ukrainian war. ” — showed that there is little enthusiasm for a “real,” large-scale war among members of Russia’s modern, urban society (the country’s military operations in Syria and eastern Ukraine in recent years were not seen as real wars).
- For the record, they don’t support the war in general, they do want it to stop; however, they can justify it in their heads somehow.
- “The feeling of the inevitability of war from the life of Russians, the feeling that the war is now with us, and we are with this life, caused the emergence of new meanings of war,” Zhuravlev said.
- However, when it comes to family, I, unfortunately, do have a conflict with my parents.
- Last week the Kremlin sent out letters to ten publications, warning them not to use the words "invasion," "attack" or "declaration of war" in their coverage.
But I don’t feel safe expressing my opinion, especially when I talk about it online or on the phone. It’s too scary, the idea of dying or being locked up for life. Plus, I can see that despite many years of huge protests, the people have not achieved anything at all. Yet Volkov added that this tolerance, however passive, is likely to remain quite stable, even strong.
Right now, we cannot withdraw other currencies at ATMs until September. Al Jazeera spoke with five young Russians about their views on the invasion, and how the blowback has affected them. Sanctions have targeted banks, oil refineries, military and luxury product exports as well as members of the Russian regime and oligarchs with close ties to the Kremlin.