Russians who Want Peace Say They Support Putin because Only He is Strong Enough to Achieve It, Zhuravlyev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 3 – Polls show Russians increasingly would like to see peace in Ukraine but continue to support Vladimir Putin as their preferred candidate in the presidential elections even though he is the man who decided to invade Ukraine in the first place and has continued to expand the Russian invasion.

            Oleg Zhuravlyev, a scholar at the Moscow Laboratory of Public Sociology, says that this reflects the coming together of increasing weariness among Russians about the war and the launch of the presidential campaigns (sibreal.org/a/zapros-na-mir-maksimalen-kak-izmenilos-rossiyskoe-obschestvo-za-2023-god/32750996.html).

            Many might expect either opposition to Putin would be growing or the Kremlin leader would be changing his position to bring it closer into line with the views of the population. But that has not happened. Instead, the sociologist says, the responses of Russians in focus groups his laboratory has organized provide a possible explanation.

            Russians who want peace “say sincerely that they will vote for Putin because only such a strong politician can do the most important thing, stop the special military operation.” That suggests, Zhuravlyev continues, that Putin is likely to position himself as the peace candidate, arguing that “Russia is for peace and the West or for war” even as he continues the fight.

            Such a position will not cost him the support of those who back him on the war, and it will prevent him from losing the backing of those who oppose the war but believe only he could possibly end it.