The overwhelming majority of Russian voters will vote in favour of Vladimir Putin. Is the Kremlin’s propaganda responsible? Learn what voters should say.
It’s all the time tough for Russian voters to specific their opinion publicly, for concern of punishment for talking their thoughts.
However a Czech TV station requested Russians to present their opinion on the presidential election, anticipated to finish this Sunday, with a triumphant re-election for President Vladimir Putin.
Younger individuals interviewed are sometimes fairly complimentary in regards to the head of the Kremlin. Listed here are two examples:
Pavel Kipriyanov, freelance actor: “If we speak typically in regards to the path chosen by my nation and my authorities, properly, I perceive it completely, I settle for it, aside from sure issues that won’t swimsuit me. However usually talking, I am proud of the path my nation is taking and I feel it is nice.”
Milena Shikina, scholar, spouse of Pavel: “Effectively, it appears to me that it has been for the reason that collapse of the Soviet Union within the 90s, when the nation wasn’t in the very best of form and was in pretty critical decline. After which Putin got here alongside and the best way our nation lives immediately. I feel it is a good end result.”
Many components can clarify this behaviour, says Russian sociologist Lev Gudkov. However in the case of younger individuals, Gudkov believes “they’ve misplaced their understanding of the Soviet period. They haven’t any expertise of it and don’t have anything to match it with. They’ve been introduced up, you may say, below Putin, they usually know nothing else.”
It is not so simple as a generational hole. Of the 1000’s of voters who’ve determined to go away Russia during the last two years, many have been younger males, decided to flee the regime and conscription to combat in Ukraine. However, proportionally, many have been unable to go away, whereas others selected to not depart their homeland. So why vote for Vladimir Putin in the end?
Milena’s father, for his half, is an outspoken opponent of the Moscow regime. However Artur Shikin, a constructing contractor, needed to flee Russia and take refuge in Georgia. His opinion is clear-cut. “There are 150 million individuals, cannot they oppose it? It is like with Stalin: individuals stated that Stalin was chargeable for every little thing. However on the identical time, one third of the inhabitants imprisoned one other third of the inhabitants and stored them in prisons, all that was finished by individuals.”
As for older voters, Gudkov additionally has a proof. “Beneath Putin,” he explains, “the thought of the long run has disappeared. Individuals haven’t any picture of the long run and, consequently, there are not any pointers for growth. That is what propoganda is saying: protect the current”.
One factor is sort of sure: current surveys have proven that almost all of Russian residents are loyal to Putin, with assist at round 70% in contrast with 20% for the opposition – though these figures are arduous to confirm.
Two-thirds of this identical inhabitants wholeheartedly settle for the data put out by state tv and the pro-Kremlin media. However is it out of conviction or abnegation?