In the month since Russia invaded Ukraine, public-opinion polls have shown a range of support among Russians for what Vladimir Putin and the country’s state media call a special military operation. …
But what does public support mean in a society with no functioning political opposition, a decimated free press, and a repressive regime in power? …
Even before the war, Russia was not the kind of place where you willy-nilly shared your political beliefs with strangers, let alone with those who called out of the blue. That tendency, forged in the Soviet period, only intensified in recent weeks, with new laws that criminalized “discrediting” the Russian military, spreading “fake news,” and making any mention in the press that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was war. CONTINUED
Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker
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