About half of the respondents continue to follow the Ukrainian events quite closely. Support for the actions of the Russian armed forces also remains at a high level. For the first time in six months, the number of supporters of negotiations has increased significantly (up to 58%). Most of the respondents believe that Russia is more interested in negotiations. Two thirds of respondents still hold the United States and NATO responsible for what is happening, and their conviction has grown over the year. Half of the respondents allows the conflict to escalate into a direct clash between Russia and NATO. Russia’s military actions in Ukraine mainly cause Russians to be proud of Russia (48%) or alarm, fear and horror (33%), these feelings have prevailed among respondents since the beginning of the conflict. The majority of respondents are concerned about the shelling of Russian territories by Ukraine, the threat of the use of nuclear weapons and the supply of Western military equipment. One in three admits that Russia’s use of nuclear weapons during the conflict may be justified.
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Mass perceptions about Western sanctions
Concerns about Western sanctions against Russia are gradually weakening. The blocking of Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves is more of a concern. The number of people who are confident that sanctions affect the majority of the population is gradually decreasing. The prevailing opinion is that the sanctions have not created serious problems for the respondents and their families. Those who still talk about problems note the departure of brands, rising prices, restrictions on travel abroad, blocking of payment systems, and the disappearance of a number of medicines. At the same time, almost two thirds of respondents believe that sanctions will strengthen our country and become an incentive for its development. The majority of respondents (73%) believe that Russia should “continue its policy despite the sanctions.”
Conflict with Ukraine: Assessments for May 2024
Mass assessments of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict are stable. More than half of the respondents are monitoring the situation quite closely. Most support the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Half of the respondents believe that it is necessary to move on to peace negotiations (43% are in favor of continuing military operations, their share has been growing in recent months). However, the majority is not ready to make concessions regarding Ukraine and this share is growing. Russians consider the exchange of prisoners of war and a ceasefire to be acceptable conditions for signing a peace agreement, while the return of new regions and Ukraine’s accession to NATO are completely unacceptable. If there was an opportunity to go back in time and cancel or support the start of Special Military Operation, slightly more than a third of the respondents would reverse this decision (their share has decreased slightly in recent months).
The level of xenophobia and ethnic tension, the attitude towards immigrants
Indicators of social distance in relation to people of different nationalities change under the influence of current events in the country and the world. The highest level of hostility is recorded in relation to Roma people, immigrants from the Central Asian republics of the former USSR and, over the past two years, in relation to Ukrainians. Over the course of 22 years of monitoring, the number of people in Russia who do not support restrictions on the residence of representatives of any nations has gradually increased. However, the prevailing opinion is that one should “try to limit the influx of visitors” and “expel illegal migrants from the country.” The majority of respondents do not feel ethnic tension and believe that mass clashes on national grounds are unlikely today.
Conflict with Ukraine: Assessments for April 2024
Half of Russians continue to monitor the situation around Ukraine more or less closely. The level of support for the Russian Armed Forces remains high, they are supported by three quarters of Russians. After a short decline at the beginning of the year, the share of Russians who advocate peace talks began to recover — now it is almost 50 %. At the same time, if the resident had decided to stop military operations already “this week”, the majority (71%) would have supported his decision. However, this share is reduced to 30% if the return of new territories became a condition for the end of the conflict. Russians are not always able to adequately assess how widespread their own views on the “special operation” are in society.
Public opinion on capital punishment and the use of torture
More than half of the respondents generally support the use of capital punishment, and a third do not support it. The terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall did not lead to an increase in the number of supporters of the death penalty — today their number is slightly less than during the previous measurement in May 2021. Respondents who support the use of capital punishment motivate their position by saying that there should be fair retribution for serious crimes, as well as by the fact that severe punishment will help maintain order. Opponents of the death penalty primarily say that “it is inhumane” and fear possible miscarriages of justice. Slightly less than half of the respondents admit torture of detainees in exceptional cases and, above all, to those who have committed serious crimes, a third believes that torture is unacceptable under any circumstances.
Ideas about the problems of Russian society: March 2024
More than half of the respondents are primarily concerned about rising prices, a third indicated concerns related to the conduct of a “special military operation”, three out of ten fear the threat of terrorist attacks. Concerns about inflation or the availability of medicine and education remain at a constant level, while worries about most socio-economic problems have subsided in the past few years. The recent terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall has noticeably exacerbated anxiety about possible terrorist attacks, as well as hostility towards migrants. The perception of social problems is significantly influenced by the respondents’ belonging to a particular social group.
Emigration sentiments and attitudes towards people who left Russia: March 2024
Only 9% of Russians would like to move abroad, this is the minimum figure for the entire observation period. There are several more such people among the youngest Russians, but even here the number of those wishing to emigrate has more than tripled in three years. The reasons for emigration are primarily the desire to provide children with a decent future, the political and economic situation in Russia, as well as interest in another culture. Among the areas of possible emigration, respondents more often name the United States, European countries and Turkey. One in six of the respondents among their relatives and friends have people who have gone abroad for permanent residence in the last 2-3 years, this proportion is higher among oppositional citizens. A negative or neutral attitude prevails towards those who have left.
The audience of Internet users, social networks, messengers and VPN services
Four out of five Russians access the Internet daily (in 2001, only 2%). Most of these are young respondents, but the number of older users is growing. Two thirds of the respondents regularly use social networks, and this proportion has tripled since 2011. The most popular social networks are VK and YouTube, and their audience continues to grow (for example, VK’s audience has tripled in 13 years). 80% of the respondents use messengers, and this number has doubled in 8 years. Whatsapp and Telegram are the most popular, and their audience is growing. A quarter of Russians use VNP services at least from time to time, over the past two years their share has hardly changed.
The role of television and the Internet as the main sources of news and the TOP most popular Russian journalists
Television remains the main source of information by audience reach and trust among Russians. At the same time, the combined audience of various news sources on the Internet exceeded the audience of TV news. Younger, educated and affluent respondents are more likely to get their news from the Internet. Older people, as well as less affluent and less educated respondents, are more likely to watch news on television. The audience of telegram channels has stabilized at the level of a quarter of the country’s population after a sharp increase in 2022. The audience of video blogs is slowly increasing, but the majority of respondents do not watch them. The most popular journalists, leading socio-political programs were V. Solovyov, O. Skabeeva, E. Popov, M. Simonyan and D. Kisilev. Independent bloggers and journalists are losing their audience.