News Desk

Why Do So Many Russians Say They Support the War in Ukraine?

In a climate of wartime censorship, the mere expression of an unsanctioned thought begins to feel like a protest action.
Dozens of people stand in a crowded stadium waving Russian flags of different sizes.
Thousands of Russians gather in Moscow to support President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. State messaging appears to have been convincing, at least to a point.Photograph from Getty

In the month since Russia invaded Ukraine, public-opinion polls have shown a range of support among Russians for what Vladimir Putin and the country’s state media call a special military operation. In one survey, sixty-five per cent of respondents approved of Russia’s actions in Ukraine; in another, the figure was seventy-one. But one thing seems clear: the war, at least as sold and narrated to the Russian people, appears to be decently popular. Even independent polls show approval well above fifty per cent. But what does public support mean in a society with no functioning political opposition, a decimated free press, and a repressive regime in power?

“I don’t think we can say that, on the whole, people in Russia love this war—that they like the idea of going off in search of conquest,” Alexey Bessudnov, a professor of sociology at the University of Exeter, told me. “But I think it would be equally false to say it’s all the Kremlin, that they are simply inventing these figures, that they don’t reflect reality.” People are supporting something, Bessudnov said, but “we should remember what people have in mind when they say they support what is happening in Ukraine.” He pointed out that the state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Center used phrasing in its survey—“Do you support the decision made for Russia to conduct a special military operation in Ukraine?”—that mimicked Putin’s own. “First, this decision has already been taken, which is a kind of hint right there,” Bessudnov said. “And, second, it’s a ‘special operation,’ not an invasion or war.”