Russians are in a state of split consciousness.
The Institute of Conflict Studies and Analysis of Russia has launched a monthly sociological monitoring of Russian society called “Mirror of Russia”. From November 26 to December 9, 2022, the first wave of the study was conducted on an all-Russian sample. The survey method is CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) or a telephone survey based on an interactive structured questionnaire using special software for conducting sociological surveys. A total of 1,208 respondents were interviewed.
Main results of the first survey wave:
On the one hand, 62% of the adult population believes that events in the Russian Federation are developing in the right direction. On the other hand, the most important problem for the country is called “special military operation” by the majority of Russians – 50% of respondents named this problem as the main one. All other problems – low salaries and pensions, rising prices, expensive medical care – took a back seat for the interviewees.
73% of respondents feel optimistic when they think about the future of the Russian Federation and their own future. However, almost 60% of Russians have relatives, friends or acquaintances who have recently been mobilized, and a third already have those who died during a “special military operation”.
61% of the population believes that partial mobilization in the fall was the right decision. And at the same time, more than half call it unfair on a social basis, when mostly poor citizens without connections were mobilized.
58% of Russians will support the decision to announce general mobilization in the Russian Federation. On the other hand, 60% are sure that even under partial mobilization, the soldiers were not properly equipped.
Half of Russians are in favor of “SМO” not having a limited time frame and lasting as long as necessary. On the other hand, 69% would be positive if the “special military operation” ended tomorrow.
Only 3% of respondents believe that the “special military operation” has achieved all its goals, and 39% believe that it has partially achieved them. At the same time, 74% positively assessed the retreat of Russian troops from Kherson.
At the same time, with regard to missile strikes on the critical energy infrastructure of Ukraine, Russian society is more unequivocal: 63% support these actions of their military-political command. More than half as many Russians oppose it.
The statistical error with a probability of 0.95 does not exceed 2.8% for values close to 50%, 2.5% for values close to 25%, and 1.2% for values close to 5%.
