Kremlin to Monitor Attitudes of Young Russians toward LGBTs, Childfree Advocates and War in Ukraine – and to Punish Regions where Too Many Young Give ‘Incorrect’ Answers

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 21 – The Presidential Administration has announced plans to set up a system to monitor the attitudes of young Russians toward such issues as the treatment of LGBT people and Childfree advocates and the outcome of Putin’s war in Ukraine and to punish regions where too many of those surveyed don’t give Kremlin-approved answers.

            This plan builds on earlier surveys conducted by the HSE (vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2025/04/18/1105155-rosmolodezh-podgotovit-zakritii-doklad-o-vliyanii-ekstremistov-na-molodih-rossiyan), but it is different in that the data on the results won’t be published and the regions with too many “incorrect” answers are slated to be punished in some as yet undefined way (moscowtimes.ru/2025/11/21/molodezh-vo-vseh-regionah-proveryat-na-loyalnost-k-voine-i-vliyanie-zapada-a180703).

            This is the latest effort by Moscow to determine just how much influence the now hated West has on the young, the current Russian government explanation for any positions among Russians it doesn’t approve of, and just how loyal young Russians are to Putin with regard to the lengthening war in Ukraine. 

            Given the not so implicit threat the Kremlin has issued about how it will react to regions where the wrong answers are given by significant fractions of young Russians, this new program will likely trigger expanded propaganda efforts by regional officials and thus a further restriction on what opinions are permissible in Putin’s Russia.

            But it may not work as the Putin regime intends. Many young Russians will certainly recognize that there are real dangers in expressing their own feelings and thus give “correct” answers entirely at variance with what they really think, leaving Kremlin officials in the dark about what the real situation in the country is.