Half of Russians Believe in a Hidden World Government and Some Think It was Behind Prigozhin Mutiny, Shelin Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 29 – Almost exactly half of all Russians believe in the existence of a hidden world government that is working against Russia, according to a VTsIOM poll (wciom.ru/analytical-reviews/analiticheskii-obzor/mirovoe-pravitelstvo-za-i-protiv. But that finding is less interesting than the attitudes they have about working with it. Sergey Shelin says.

            The Moscow commentator says that Russians are very much afraid of this shadowy regime, more afraid of it than of dentists, for example, precisely because they think it is so powerful and capable of threatening the continued existence of the regime in their country (moscowtimes.ru/2023/06/29/skolko-rossiyan-gotovi-kapitulirovat-pered-mirovim-pravitelstvom-a47480).

            Some of them in fact believe that this world government was behind the Prigozhin rising. After all, they say, it was too well organized to have been put together by Russians alone.

            But if they feel threatened by a world government, Shelin continues, they aren’t really prepared to mobilize and do anything about it. And what is more, he argues, many would readily cooperate with such a world government if it overthrew the current Kremlin regime and ruled Russia.

            As evidence for this conclusion, he cites the following statistic from the poll:while 50 percent of Russians told VTsIOM that their country must fight against this world government,  29 percent said they were ready to cooperate with it if it took power in their country. Those who did not express an opinion presumably are vacillating.