Lev Goodkov insists that the March poll, which gave Russian President Vladimir Putin high marks, was honest. He says he is being asked about it every day, as people want to know if Russians are telling pollsters the truth or if they are hiding their feelings for fear of repercussions.
But he is convinced that his respondents did not lie about Putin and this war. Goodkov, who is the director of the Levada Center, Russia’s only independent constituency, argues that the idea that Russians are afraid to tell the truth about politics is a concept widely used by dissidents because they know the price. of speaking openly. and have an increased sensitivity to it.
Goodkov insists that everyone else in Russia is more or less under the spell of state television propaganda being relentlessly channeled into their brains in recent years, parroting the Kremlin’s lines. For its cooperation with some US universities, the Levada Center has been designated a “Foreign Agent” by the Russian government. That means it is under constant threat of “repression or liquidation,” Goodkov said, and Russian organizations have been ordered not to cooperate with the group.
Still, he continues. Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council in Yerevan, Armenia. (Shutterstock) BLLNKEN ACCUSES RUSSIA OF “INTENTIONAL CAMPAIGN” FOR KILLINGS, TORTURE, RAPE The latest Levada poll in March found that 83% of Russians approve of President Putin’s actions, and that number has risen since the summer. It was 61% then and went to 65% in January, to 71% in February and to 83% now that the war has begun. About 81% support the war in particular. “This is normal,” Goodkov explains, “for the start of a military mobilization. In the autumn of last year, propaganda and demagogy really increased.” “Anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian sentiment was stirred and we had never seen such fear of the real possibility of war. Seventy-three percent of people feared a world war,” he told Fox News. Goodkov said that because of Russia’s censorship and the extreme lack of independent news agencies, the high ratings – what many would call shockingly high – for the invasion of Ukraine reflected the power of Kremlin propaganda. Putin, in the aftermath of Biden’s comments, says Russia knows “how to defend our interests.” (Reuters) RUSSIA PREPARES AGAINST SOUTH, EASTERN UKRAINE, OFFICIALS SAY Goodkov explained, however, that views differed between villages and small to medium-sized and larger cities. In larger cities, he said, the prevailing mood was “shame, despair, depression, anxiety and discouragement” about the war, he explained. “Where people are more educated, more informed, I would say the atmosphere is more panicky. The big metropolitan areas were the first to feel the impact of the sanctions and understand the catastrophic situation that will lead in a few months,” Goodkov explained. adding that the economic hardship that afflicts cities will eventually make its way to the heart – and at that point, opinion could also change. There was something called the “Crimean Consensus” that Putin got after the annexation of the famous peninsula. Subsequently, his popularity skyrocketed to 89%. There was broad agreement that the patriotic moment was over, as was the impetus the president received from it. This war with its thousands of dead soldiers is unlikely to have the same impact on society. “This is not comparable to 2014 when there were strong feelings and euphoria about Crimea and the feeling that Russia was again a great power,” said Goodkov.
CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION He said anti-Americanism had increased. About 73% of Russians had a negative opinion of the United States. Goodkov said that feelings for America have fallen and are flowing according to the volume and scope of propaganda broadcast by the state media. It was intense during the NATO bombing of Belgrade, the war in Georgia, the occupation of Crimea – and, as a result, anti-Americanism erupted in those moments. The Kremlin, meanwhile, has provided no credible evidence of a “Nazi” problem in Ukraine. “Of course it does not exist,” he replied. “It’s a way of discrediting the enemy. For Putin, a successful Ukraine integrated into the European Union is a threat to the stability of his regime.”