Growing Hostility to Russian Officials Eclipsing Ethnic Hostilities among Russians

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 12 – One of the more intriguing consequences of Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukraine was that as Russians became more hostile to Ukrainians, they appeared to cut back the level of hostility toward non-Russians within their own country both in terms of what they told pollsters and regarding how they behaved.

            Now, something analogous may be happening. Growing hostility among Russians toward the Russian government is reducing the relative significance of their hostility toward non-Russians, opening the possibility that there may be greater cooperation across ethnic lines and the danger that the Kremlin will try to do something to prevent that from happening.

            According to a new TSIRKON poll, 45 percent of Russians say the greatest “contradiction” in their country today is between the population and the government, with 42 identifying that between rich and poor, figures far higher than for any other factor, Kommersant reports (kommersant.ru/doc/3881470).

                Only 24 percent see the largest “contradiction” being between those of different political views, only 16 percent between those of different nationalities, and only 13 percent between longtime residents and recent arrivals, including migrants, the poll found.  In short, as hostility to the regime has increased, hostility toward other groups has been eclipsed.

            Three out of four in the sample said they are “ready to unity with other people for joint actions if their ideas and interests correspond.”  But 65percent said one had to be “careful” in dealing with others, and 57 percent said the population remains divided along many lines, TSIRKON analysts said media reporting on conflicts had helped produce this situation.

            Until recently, the paper quotes Sergey Obukhov of the KPRF Central Committee, Russian society, having become radically individualistic and even anomic, was united by Vladimir Putin given that “all other social-political institutions had been devalued.” But now even that unifying factor is breaking down, opening the way to conflicts old and new.