Paul Goble
Staunton, October 13 – Although 54
percent of Russians tell VTsIOM that they back the Kremlin’s policy of
continuing the war in Syria, 34 percent say they are against doing so, with 24
percent of the latter pointing to Russian combat losses as justification for
their position and another 15 percent saying that Moscow has many problems at
home it should be addressing.
Not surprisingly, Russian outlets
have played up Russian support for Vladimir Putin’s policies in Syria and
played down opposition – see, for example, regnum.ru/news/polit/2333329.html and
polit.ru/news/2017/10/12/poll/
-- but both the share willing to say they oppose and their reasons suggest
public support for Putin’s war is softening.
And in yet another possible sign of
a shift in Russian opinion about the Kremlin leader’s foreign military adventures,
nearly one in five of the entire sample – 19 percent – told the polling agency
that there was no need to provide support to Syria and its government after the
end of the war.
That was just one of the poll
results released this past week that provide insights into where Russians now
are and where they are headed. Among the more interesting findings of these other
polls were the following:
·
Russian
trust in the Moscow Patriarchate is declining and backing for the security
agencies and the military is increasing (profile.ru/obsch/item/120385-siloviks
and http://polit.ru/news/2017/10/12/trust/),
·
Russians
have a relatively positive view of the Bolsheviks but do not want a new
revolution (kommersant.ru/doc/3435786
and vz.ru/politics/2017/10/12/890583.html),
·
Ever more Russians are concerned about the growing gap
between rich and poor (ria.ru/society/20171013/1506754905.html
and fedpress.ru/article/1873940), and
·
Russian university students heavily back
Putin, the only president they have ever known (iz.ru/657263/angelina-galanina/pokolenie-putina-opredelilos-s-prezidentom).
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