Faced with foreign pressure, Russians rally around Putin, poll shows

[sarisataka]

Faced with foreign pressure, Russians rally around Putin, poll shows

President Vladimir V. Putin’s approval ratings have reached levels unseen in years, according to an independent poll released on Thursday, as many Russians rally around the flag in the face of mounting international pressure.

Eighty-three percent of Russians said they approved of Mr. Putin’s actions, up from 69 percent in January, according to a poll by the Levada Center, an independent pollster in Moscow. Ratings of many other government institutions, as well as the governing party, have also gone up, the poll indicated.

While some observers believe polls in Russia do not reflect public opinion accurately, with many people giving answers they believe are socially acceptable, most agree that they are useful in gauging the dynamics of people’s moods.

Many Russians live in a world, as presented by state-run media, where there is no war with Ukraine. Instead, their country is carrying out “a special military operation” to uproot far-right extremists in a brotherly country that went off track and has been pushed by Western countries to turn against Moscow.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/europe/putin-approval-rating-russia.html

[samsingh]

1. this is the reason i don't agree that the russian people are completely innocent

[maxsolomon]

4. Like many Americans, they are victims of sophisticated, relentless Propaganda.

The message that Putin's put out for literal decades is that the West hates Russia and wants to destroy it. There is no counter narrative.

"Forgive them Lord, they know not what they do".

[BootinUp]

2. I guess they won't complain

About the sanctions then.

[Salviati]

3. Or the draft

[maxsolomon]

5. If there's any age group that knows the facts of the matter

it's the youth, who are also the ones subject to conscription.

In a lot of ways, I feel sorry for the Russian people. They've always been ruled by the worst people imaginable. They don't know anything else.

[BeyondGeography]

6. Faced with jail terms for opposing Putin, Russians tell pollsters he's great

Alternatively.

But yes, as many Ukrainians have heard first-hand, lots of Russians have drunk the koolaid.

[uponit7771]

7. A poll of Russian expats would be more credible

[lagomorph777]

10. A poll of cows would be more credible.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

8. Oh we'll rally 'round the Poot

Yes we'll rally once again

Singing the battle cry of free dumb

[lagomorph777]

9. Of course. Given his recent crackdowns, they know what the wrong answer will get them.

Defenestration or Novichok.

[bullwinkle428]

11. Exactly the reason why no NATO boots should touch Ukrainian soil.

Please continue to supply UKR with every last bit of weaponry they need.

[Firestorm49]

12. Just more BS propaganda conjured up and disseminated by Putin's cabal. Nt

[Crunchy Frog]

13. Not surprising. It's why I have no sympathy for their "suffering".

And I've seen many accounts where it's not restricted to Russians inside Russia, but is also common among Russians on the outside who have plenty of access to alternate sources of information.

[orwell]

14. It doesn't matter what they believe...

...just as it doesn't matter what we believe.

The world is now being managed by the gangster class. In reality people have no idea what is really going on. The world has become far too complex for the population to have any knowledge or perspective based on reality.

Propaganda is effective and it is everywhere. The average person has no concept of where their water comes from, how energy is generated and delivered, how the information technology that undergirds modern human existence is structured.

Polls are effectively meaningless, other than to signify what a cow thinks about grass. "Uh...it's there every day...and...I like to chew it."

That is why democracy is failing and autocracy is on the rise. The autocratic state "gets things done." It has replaced religion as the patriarchal instrument of power.

Don't worry kiddos, big daddy will take care of it.

And the entire edifice is collapsing around us like the house of cards it is. Illusions are fine as long as they are not bumping up against hard realities like climate collapse. It's like someone hitting you over the head with a metal rod when you aren't looking.

And in the end, that is the only "pole" that will really matter...