The All-Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM) conducted a study on the consolidation of Russian society and found out how Russians were united by the difficult situation in the country and the world.
According to the results of the study, more than half of Russian citizens noted that the special military operation in Ukraine rather united Russian society (61 per cent), than split it (20 per cent). Ten per cent of respondents believe that the special military operation did not affect society in any way, and another 9 per cent found it difficult to give an assessment.
The multinational nature of Russia makes the country stronger, according to 70 per cent of respondents, while only 4 per cent hold the opposite point of view. In turn, one in five believes that the multinational nature of the country does not affect it in any way (21 per cent).
In addition, the study showed that Russians, when they think about their country, more often experience positive emotions: pride for it (50 per cent), love for it (43 per cent), faith in it (38 per cent), hope for it (29 per cent). Among the negative ones, there were named anxiety for it (23 per cent), disappointment (5 per cent), and indifference (1 per cent).
Majority of Russians (89 per cent) support the point of view that Russia should live by its own rules, without looking back at the countries of the West. The opinion that the country needs to live by the rules of Western countries to the detriment of its own rules is held by only 3 per cent of respondents.
The unification around the President in the conditions of economic and humanitarian sanctions of the West is supported by 81 per cent of citizens, while 12 per cent believe that there is no need for this, and 7 per cent found it difficult to give an answer. This question was asked to the respondents, because there is an opinion that in the conditions of economic and humanitarian sanctions announced by the West, Russia needs to unite around the President to support him, even if you do not agree with him in everything.
In addition, Russians were asked to evaluate various aspects of their country’s relations with Western countries on a ten-point scale. Russians rated the differences between Russian and Western values as quite high, the average score was 7.97 (out of 10 points). According to Russians, the Western model of society is rather not applicable to the social structure of Russia (3.02 points, where 1 is definitely not, 10 is definitely yes).
Also, citizens consider Russian society more fair (7.17 points out of 10), and Western countries more unfriendly (3.26 points, where 1 is absolutely unfriendly, 10 is very friendly). Finally, the assessments of the impact of Western sanctions are dominated by positive ones: Russians believe that they will improve the economy rather than destroy it (4.18 points, where 1 – will improve, and 10 – will destroy).
Ru-Main, 11.05.2022
Source: VTsIOM
