The leaders of the liberal opposition who have emigrated continue to call for protest rallies to be held every day « in the main square of your city ». It’s easy to understand from an emotional point of view: no day should be spent accepting war. However, icy reason tells us that at this moment the most important thing is not an ethical position but careful work to mobilize those strata that liberal politicians had ignored for a long time. Only the former “Putin majority” can change the balance of power and end the war.

This is where the Russian left currently sees its purpose: to work with those sections of the population. Of all the sociological reports Finland Email List to the perception of the Russian “special operation” in Ukraine, only one allows us to see the connection between social inequality and attitudes towards war.

Despite the common perception in Russia (mainly stemming from the dominance of the liberal narrative in the opposition media) that only the well-educated and wealthy minority oppose Putin, while the poor majority remain loyal consumers of propaganda, the surveys show that it is the poor who perceive the war most critically. “People with low incomes are more concerned about the military operation because they expect a further worsening of their material conditions in this regard,” the researchers observe.