Paul Goble
Staunton,
July 3 – New Levada Center polls show that Russians are less trusting of
Vladimir Putin and other senior leaders including Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey
Shoygu and Sergey Lavrov than they were, with fewer than 50 percent of Russians
surveyed now saying that they trust the Kremlin leader, Yury Gudkov says.
Several
factors are involved, the sociologist says, including the end of election-era
mobilization, the growth of tensions over rising prices and falling incomes, and
the extreme unpopularity of the government’s plan to raise the retirement age. “All
this taken together has given this effect” (ehorussia.com/new/node/16546).
The unfavorable
international environment also plays a role, Gudkov continues. “Forced anti-Western
and anti-Ukrainian mobilization cannot last too long,” especially given that
with the controversy over pensions, “all foreign policy events have begun to
seem less significant” to most Russians.
Putin who enjoys the reputation of
being a “Teflon” president began to see a decline in public trust immediately
after the elections, but the decline has not lasted long enough to say that it is
a trend. Several more soundings of
public opinion over the next months will be needed for that, Gudkov says.
What has occurred so far will not
necessarily lead to changes in cadres, he adds, because in an authoritarian
system like Russia’s today decisions about that reflect the views of the
leadership rather than the assessments of the population, a pattern that Gudkov
describes as “unfortunate.”
But he says that he “fears there
will be changes but not those which we are waiting for. There exists the danger
that the [Kremlin’s] course will become as a result harsher and more repressive
and the reduction in the support from the population will lead to a return to
the use of blackmail in international affairs,” including “provocations”
designed to mobilize the population.
No comments:
Post a Comment