In a week, February 24 will mark one year of the war in Ukraine. The choice of franceinfo tries to dive into the heads of the Russians to understand the position of the population on the conflict.
Officially, the Russian population massively supports the power and the war in Ukraine. This is what the polls carried out by the government say, which are obviously to be taken with a grain of salt. But this is also what the latest monthly barometer from the Levada Institute, the only independent polling institute in Russia, says, for which nearly three quarters of the Russians questioned support the war.
INTERVIEW >> Russia: “There is no rejection of war and power, it’s exactly the opposite”, analyzes a Russian sociologist
This has been a major trend since the beginning of the conflict, it has even been rather reinforced, despite the difficulties of the Russian army which escapes no one in Russia, despite the first economic consequences of the sanctions, despite the deaths, the funerals of soldiers that can no longer be concealed, this support has been consolidated.
“The censorship is total”
Lioudmila’s husband was a paratrooper officer and was killed in March 2022. She could blame power, but that’s not the case: “My husband is my pride. He performed a heroic act. Everything is going as it should. This victory will be ours. I have no doubt that we are fighting fascism. I mean, I know why and what all this is for. We are proud of our army.”
“We are proud of our country and we are proud of our president.”
Lioudmila, widow of a Russian soldier who died in Ukraineat franceinfo
Obviously, one wonders how one can say such things when one has lost one’s husband. Lev Goudkov, who is the scientific director of the Levada Institute, insists on the Russian context: “You have to understand the conditions under which the coverage of this war is carried out. The censorship is total. There are 270 of the most popular media that have been blocked. Even if there are alternative information possibilities, the great mass of people don’t want it. It keeps them in a comfortable psychological state: ‘I don’t know anything, don’t say nasty things to me.’ We can indeed say that it is a protection.”
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A lack of resistance?
This sociologist, who is extremely renowned in Russia, explains that in fact, it would be better to speak of the absence of resistance than of support. For many Russians, this translates into the fact that they are actually looking elsewhere. “There’s a feeling that if you don’t read the news then you don’t see the missiles or the aggressionsays Konstantin, a forty-year-old from Moscow. And when I see things that I am unable to face as an individual, what can I do? Climb the barricades? I guess I can do it, but I mostly understand that I risk ruining my life. So I don’t know, I live my life.”
It should be remembered that expressing your opposition to the war can lead to you going to prison. And despite everything, in the Levada polls, we still see that there is, for example, a real generational divide. Among young people, nearly 35% speak out against the war, which poses problems in many families. “There was a difficult moment with my mother because she believes that the government did the right thing and that we are at war with the Americans, says Katia, a young farmer who lives 200 kilometers from Moscow. .I don’t know if these are thoughts inspired by propaganda or if these are genuine personal thoughts.”
“Of course, you can’t argue constructively and calmly and hear his point of view. That’s why we don’t talk about it.”
Katia, young Russian farmerat franceinfo
What Katia says also allows us to understand how this support for power operates. Her mother, she says, believes the country is at war with the Americans. This is exactly the inflection that the discourse of power has taken in recent times.
The idea of a besieged Russia
We no longer speak of “denazification” or “liberation of Donbass”. Support for power crystallizes around the idea of a besieged Russia. “Russia is now bordered on all its borders by unfriendly statesargues Svetlana, a retiree from the suburbs of Moscow. We should listen to Putin. He said that if the supply of armaments, especially long-range missiles, continues, the frontiers of the special operation will expand. What does that mean ? That World War III could start?”
“I am not afraid of war. If there is a war, the Russian people will go to war to defend their homeland, that’s for sure.”
Svetlana, a Russian pensionerat franceinfo
A speech which may seem quite terrifying, but which we hear almost every evening at the moment on Russian television.