Few Russians Now Calling for Talks with Kyiv Prepared for Moscow to Make Any Concessions to Ukraine, Volkov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 25 – Support among Russians for talks with Kyiv about ending the war “does not mean a readiness to make concessions to Ukraine, Denis Volkov says. The share of Russians prepared to do that is “no more than 20 percent,” a figure that the Levada Center head says is “unchanged over the course of the last year.”

            No more than 15 percent of Russians are prepared to give back to Ukraine any territories Moscow has occupied or allow Ukraine to become a member of NATO, he says; and consequently, while many would like an end to the conflict, very few are ready to make any concessions to achieve that end (forbes.ru/mneniya/506807-strasno-bylo-tol-ko-v-nacale-kak-za-dva-goda-obsestvo-privyklo-k-specoperacii).

            That is one of the factors that has kept Russian support for the Kremlin’s policies in Ukraine high and largely unchanged over the course of the last two years, Volkov continues. One of the reasons for this is the sense people have that they can’t affect the outcome anyway, and another is that they are bombarded by state propaganda.

            But another and increasingly important factor is this: Many who might feel otherwise have chosen to leave the country or simply to go along to avoid trouble, and there has appeared in place of the creative group that formed the older middle class in Russia a new middle class that has positive feelings about the future because its incomes come from the government.

            As long as the Kremlin has sufficient resources to keep this new middle class happy, it will have the support of the majority of the Russian population to continue the war in Ukraine well into the future without being under any pressure from that sector to make concessions in talks to end the war.