Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?

[Celerity]

More than 100 interviews by Russian researchers have shed light on the different groups in Russian society who are pro-war—and why.

https://socialeurope.eu/why-do-russians-support-the-war-against-ukraine



Since the very beginning of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, the reaction of Russians themselves to the war has remained a central question. What do they think about the war? Why do people support it? Opinion polls generally show that the majority of Russian citizens support Russian military actions in Ukraine. But social scientists have criticised these polls as unreliable. They point out that many of these surveys are run by polling companies loyal to the Russian state, that respondents in authoritarian regimes tend to choose answers that emphasise their loyal attitude towards the authorities and that all polling companies, including independent organisations, face a high number of rejections when asking people to participate, which again biases the results towards respondents who support government policy. Most importantly, opinion polls do not show how people who apparently support the Russian military’s ‘special operation’ in Ukraine think. Who are these people? What exactly do they support? What is the logic behind their thinking?

Independent research

Only a more in-depth study of Russians’ perception of the war in Ukraine can answer these questions. Public Sociology Laboratory, an independent research collective, began conducting in-depth interviews in Russia on February 27th and continues to do so today. We collected interviews with people both offline and online. The offline work included interviews at public events in major cities of Russia (mainly Moscow and St Petersburg)—for example, at anti-war or pro-war gatherings—and interviews during the daily routine of our interviewers, for example, with the cashier of a store near home, a hairdresser in a regular salon, a bartender in a favourite bar, fellow train passengers and so on. The online interviews were conducted with people who responded to call-outs on social networks, and with people found by the ‘snowball’ method—where a previous respondent or personal acquaintance of the interviewer recruits other people. Propaganda and repression mean it is becoming increasingly difficult to get people’s permission to discuss the war. At the time of writing, our archive contains 134 anonymous sociological interviews with an average duration of 40 to 50 minutes. Of these, 30 interviews were recorded with those who identify themselves as supporting Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.

More complicated

We often think of those who support the war as people who believe in Russian state propaganda, who believe Ukraine has been ‘captured by Nazis’ and/or that Ukraine (with the help of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was planning an attack on Donbas and Crimea, and then on Russia. Another stereotype is that these people support the president, Vladimir Putin, or are ready to ignore the negative consequences of the west’s economic sanctions against Russia. But our research shows that the reasons people support the Russian military operation in Ukraine are more complicated. The very first interviews we conducted demonstrated that we would not be able to compile a single portrait of a person who supports the war against Ukraine. Instead, we found a range of types of support, which we have separated into different groups.



The state propaganda audience

Among Russians who support the military’s actions against Ukraine, we found people who tend to reproduce the clichés of Russian state propaganda in their reasoning. These people trust official Russian sources of information (and most often do not consume other media). They justify the war by referring to the need to protect the inhabitants of Donbas from the Ukrainian regime (referred to as ‘nationalist’, ‘Nazi’ or ‘fascist’) and to fight Ukrainian ‘Nazism’ or ‘fascism’ in general. These people are concerned about civilian casualties among Ukrainians but they believe the Ukrainian army is responsible for this: the latter, they say, hides in residential areas and provokes return fire on civilians. They are inclined to admit that the sanctions will hit the Russian economy but are ready to ‘endure’ their consequences. They support Putin and despite the fact that they see internal problems in Russia, they are ready to forgive these problems during a difficult time for the country. When conducting interviews with these informants, however, we noticed one interesting pattern: the more time that had passed since Russia’s initial invasion, the more likely it was that these people were ready to doubt their picture of the world. In the first week of the war, none of the supporters of this type suggested that information received from official Russian sources could be inaccurate or incomplete.

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[gab13by13]

1. Russians support the war in Ukraine because,

it's pretty hard to take a poll in Russia and people who are against the war end up in jail, so they stay quiet.

[Celerity]

2. as the article goes into depth about, it is more complicated than that

[Scrivener7]

3. But really, if you think about it, all of those groups support the war because they are

buying into Russian propaganda.

The ones who outright buy into the propaganda and want to "oust the nazis," the "imperialists" who buy the fact that Russia needs to be strong and dominate all its neighbors, the "NATO is coming for us" faction. All of them are products of nonsense propaganda.

I am having less and less sympathy for the average Russian. They know they are being lied to and are complacent in the face of those lies.

Good article, though. Thanks.

[underpants]

4. Video from CNN last night - escaping the Russians

The effects of Russian propaganda is clear near the end of the video. The guy who saved these peoples lives calls out the lady’s “bill shit” directly.

https://www.cnn.com/specials/latest-news-videos

[Ferrets are Cool]

5. IMHO, the same reason "most" Americans supported the Iraq invasion.

Lies, lies and more lies. All to a gullible population.

[BeyondGeography]

6. I'm more interested in what makes Russians so fucked in the head

This guy nails it:

[ratchiweenie]

7. Wow, this guy is just fascinating. Brilliant.

[BeyondGeography]

8. Required viewing

Thanks for watching.

Paranoia and an addiction to strongmen. Democracy equals chaos. It runs deep. You’d think 6k nuclear warheads would lessen their fears of invasion, but no.

As discussed in the video, there are historical roots to all this. Russia needs to be handled with care, but they also fit that Talleyrand quote about the Bourbons to a tee: They have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

[ratchiweenie]

9. I sent it to my son and he was very impressed. Very good insight into the Russian psych.