Russians are growing weary of the war against Ukraine but are divided about how much harm it has done and how to end it, according to a report based on polling and focus groups by the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and the Levada Center, an independent polling group.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Notably, however, as President Vladimir Putin appears poised to run in a highly managed presidential election in March, the nation has not turned against him, and Western efforts to punish Russia for the war have not weakened his grip on power.
“All the naïve predictions that popular discontent triggered by sanctions and the wartime restrictions imposed on daily life would bring down Vladimir Putin’s regime have come to nothing,” the report states.
“While the public is tired of the ‘special military operation,’ there are different views on how the fighting should end,” the report said, using the Kremlin’s official euphemism for the war.
The report by Denis Volkov of the Levada Center and Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center suggests that the softening of support for the war in some sections of the population will not derail Putin’s reelection, as the Kremlin strives to use the campaign to enhance his personal legitimacy after ditching the limit on Putin seeking another presidential term in 2020.
While Russians voice little trust in the government on everyday matters such as provision of services, they nonetheless seem to accept the Kremlin’s argument that the war is necessary.
“The state continues to create the prevailing public opinion through propaganda,” the authors wrote, adding: “A year ago, this segment of society might have chosen to hide from reality.
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