As the war enters its second month, President Putin’s “special operation” in Ukraine is dividing families and polarising public opinion in Russia.
Surveys indicate that between 50 and 70 per cent of the population is in favour of the invasion.
But polling data is notoriously unreliable in an autocracy and anecdotal evidence suggests a swathe of society is opposed to the invasion, even if their voices are muffled.
Critics point out that anonymous telephone polling on sensitive issues is misleading in a country where criticising the government can lead to jail or harassment.
Yesterday Alexei Venediktov, 66, the Jewish former editor of the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station that was recently shut by the authorities, published a picture of a pig’s head in a curly wig that was left on his doorstep. Unidentified vandals put a sticker of the Ukrainian trident symbol on the door, emblazoned with the word Judensau, or “Jewish pig”.
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This week three activists in St Petersburg who oppose the war found piles of manure left outside their apartments. Their doors were defaced with graffiti and a sign reading, “Caution! A traitor to the motherland lives here”.
Maxim Kats, 37, a Moscow opposition politician, said he had commissioned his own poll about the war, but the large majority of potential respondents refused to reply when they heard the topic. “The only people who answer public opinion surveys are the ones who support the war,” Kats added. “Masses of people are against it but they are afraid to say so.”
Polls indicate that the younger the respondent the more likely he or she is to be against the war. Many of the tens of thousands of Russians voting with their feet and leaving the country appear to be urban professionals in their twenties and thirties with fewer ties and responsibilities, and therefore greater capacity to work abroad.
The generational divide in sentiment has caused splits between parents and children, with the latter often baffled that the former are so susceptible to government manipulation.
“I’m against the war. I can’t bear to look at those images of children suffering and innocent people forced from their homes,” said Yelena, 35, a Muscovite who asked for her surname not to be used. “But my mother, who is normally a kind and compassionate person, has been railing about ‘the Nazis’ in Ukraine and how they need to be torn out at the roots. It just goes to show how people get sucked in by the propaganda.”
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An office worker in her early sixties in Moscow who also spoke on condition of anonymity said: “I’m in favour of the special operation. Putin has got it right. We’ve had it up to here with you in the West. We asked you to keep away from our borders but you just wouldn’t listen. Imagine the fuss in Washington if Russia was funding Mexico to fight Americans. The Ukrainians became American puppets. I know people are getting killed there but we were forced to defend ourselves.”
Vladimir Mashkov, 58, the Russian film star who has acted in Hollywood blockbusters such as Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, is one of the celebrities supporting the war.
Mashkov appeared at a patriotic concert led by Putin in Moscow on March 18 to demonstrate public backing. “We are Russian people. We love our country,” the actor told flag-waving crowds. “We are for peace without Nazism. We are for our president, for our Motherland, for victory.”
Mashkov’s daughter, Masha Mashkova, 36, an actress who lives in the United States, told CNN this week that she sharply disagreed with her father. “What’s happening right now is just unthinkable,” she said. “And the fact that so many Russian people, including my dad, believe that this violence is somehow justified — it breaks my heart.”
Since the invasion began, the government has blocked or closed a series of independent news websites for allegedly publishing “false information” about the campaign; in reality, facts about its devastating human consequences and the deaths of Russian soldiers. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are also banned.
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State television is dominated by hours of talk shows in which guests pour bile on the West and Ukrainian “fascists”, accusing them of threatening Russia’s security.
Meanwhile, children at schools and kindergartens are made to stand in formation to make the letter “Z”, which is marked on Russian military vehicles in Ukraine. Adults, from Arctic reindeer herders to pole dancers, have joined in the flashmob.
Asked whether she thought millions of Russians were unaware of the true situation in Ukraine because of propaganda and censorship, Mashkova responded: “I talked on the phone with my dad yesterday and now I do believe that unfortunately, yes.”
