What Russians think of the war in Ukraine, according to an independent pollster ?

 

         

     What Russians think of the war in Ukraine, according to an independent pollster ?

As Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep notes, doing anything independently in Russia is tricky (the government has branded the firm a foreign agent), as is conducting polls on this topic — since the government prohibits calling the invasion a war, and dissenters are arrested.

The Levada Center stays within those parameters by asking whether people support the actions of the Russian military.

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. And he sees shock and anxiety across the entire group.

Volkov told Inskeep that he's aware of the pitfalls with these polls, but they may still have valuable information to teach us.

"We must understand that polls show us not what people really think or really believe, but what they want to share," he says.

Volkov says these polls are conducted face-to-face, and people are assured of anonymity. 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.

"We are measuring public attitudes that, more or less, coincide with how people will behave in public," he adds.