Paul Goble
Staunton, June 16 – Because of the widespread belief that Russians tell pollsters what they believe the Kremlin wants them to when it comes to critical questions like support for Putin’s war in Ukraine, analysts are always looking for surveys on less obvious sensitive issues that may provide insights into what they are really thinking.
Moscow commentator Vitaly Grankin says that a recent survey by VTsIOM concerning the spending plans of Russians may provide precisely that kind of indirect information. He notes that it found that most Russians now are putting off plans for spending or making any plans for the future, even if they say they back the war (rosbalt.ru/russia/2022/06/16/1962578.html).
Such Russians don’t explicitly blame the powers that be, but their actions certainly constitute an indictment of Kremlin policy, especially given that only those with little to lose, the poor and the young, link their decisions on future spending plans to what the government is doing in Ukraine.
What is keeping such feelings on the part of the majority from evolving in the direction of anti-war attitudes is the unexpected confidence Russians now have in the banking system. The polls suggest that they have confidence in Russian banks and thus are now prepared to keep what money they have in them and wait for conditions in the country to change.
Such attitudes about the banking system may go a long way toward explaining why the Kremlin has not adopted some of the more radical schemes some have proposed for extracting/confiscating money from the population to pay for the war. Doing so might bring short term benefits but only at longer term costs.
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