According to official state surveys, 70 percent of Russians believe it is correct that Moscow sent troops to Ukraine. The trust index of Russian President Putin increased from 60 to 71 percent, reports Magyar Nemzet.
"Now is not the time for division. Now is the time for national unity to line up behind our president," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, reacting to the demonstrations in Russia and the statements of public figures who spoke out against Russia's war against Ukraine, Magyar Nemzet reports. They added: while the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula, inhabited mostly by Russians, by Russia was greeted with clear cheers by the people in Russia, until
the current war divides the population much more.
They added: in the absence of public opinion polls, it is difficult to determine to what extent for the time being, and of course the long-term effects of the Western sanctions will only be felt by the Russians later.
State and independent surveys also show a similar situation
According to official state surveys, 70 percent of Russians believe it is correct that Moscow sent troops to Ukraine, Nikita Savin, a professor at the National Research University in Moscow, told the Australian public broadcaster ABC. However, the survey by the Levada institute, which is considered independent, reached a similar result: only a third of the respondents condemned the Russian operation, and the proportion was especially high among urban residents.
The state pollster has also established recently that Vladimir
Russian President Putin's trust index increased from 60 to 71 percent.
Only 18 percent of those polled answered that they did not trust Putin. The fact that only thousands of anti-war demonstrations were held in Russia's big cities also confirms that there really cannot be a huge indignation in Russia for the time being. Of course, all of this may also be related to the fact that, according to the information published in the Western press, information about the war is being restricted in Russia, and the state media is talking about a "special military operation"
If we can at least believe Levada,
the Russians did not have a positive opinion of the Ukrainians even before the war.
According to a survey conducted by the institute in mid-February, 52 percent of people had a rather negative attitude, and 35 percent had a positive attitude. And in a survey just before the war, the state pollster pointed out that 73 percent of those surveyed supported Vladimir Putin's decision to recognize the independence of the separatist pro-Russian territories in eastern Ukraine.
Source: Magyar Nemzet / Mandiner
Cover photo: A protester is taken away in a police vehicle from a demonstration against the Russian attack on Ukraine in St. Petersburg on February 27, 2022. (Photo: MTI/EPA/Anatoly Maltsev)
