Four Times as Many Russians Against Giving Newly Occupied Ukrainian Regions as Much as Moscow is Now than the Number Saying They’d Give These Areas More, New Poll Finds

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 7 – Often, the best way to learn how much support the particular policies of any government enjoy is to survey people on whether people think that the right amount of money is being spent, too much or too little. That can be more instructive than questions about support in general which people quite frequently respond to for broader political reasons.

            One such instructive poll has now taken place in Russia. Conducted by the Platform research center and the Russian State University of the Humanities, it found that support for Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian land is high – 63 percent – and opposition low – eight percent, figures on Russian spending there are more revealing (kommersant.ru/doc/6321342).

            When asked their views about how much Russia should spend on such places, 53 percent said Moscow was sending the right amount, but 28 percent said it was spending too much there, four times the share of the seven percent who said Russia should be spending more on such places.

            At the very least, this pattern indicates that Russians aren’t going to oppose what Putin is doing in general but that he can’t count on their unqualified support for even the current level of financing – and that spending more is something a significant fraction of Russians are opposed to, a sure sign of war weariness.