Poorer Russians Less Supportive of Putin’s War in Ukraine than Wealthier Ones, Russian Field Poll Finds

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 21 – While Russian supporters of Putin’s war in Ukraine outnumber opponents of that conflict at all income levels, poorer Russians are far less likely to say they back it or would have not have avoided launching the conflict if they could go back in time, according to the findings of the latest Russian Field Poll.

            Among the poorest strata of the population, those who say they would avoid launching the war is almost as great at the share of those who say they would go ahead, 34 percent to 39 percent, while among the wealthiest, only 15 percent say that they would not have launched the conflict (https://thinktanks.by/publication/2022/05/21/56-protsentov-oproshennyh-rossiyan-schitayut-spetsoperatsiyu-v-ukraine-uspeshnoy.html).

            The independent polling group also found a slight decline in the share of Russians who believe the war in Ukraine is going successfully from Russia’s point of view. Sixty percent were ready to make that declaration in the middle of April; only 56 percent shared that view in the middle of May.

            The more critical attitudes of the poor toward the war provide support for sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky’s argument that Russian liberals and those on the left have made a major mistake in not casting their arguments against the war in ways that will attract Russians with lower incomes (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/06/liberals-and-left-fail-to-see-that-poor.html).