Before you read this article you should understand several things. Firstly, I am Russian. I was born in Russia, and I have lived there for 22 years. I love my country and I am deeply sorrowful about what Putin has done.
Second, I and millions of my people have not elected Vladimir Putin. His actions are beyond reason, beyond morality. He is a criminal and must be treated like one. Thirdly, I am not a political scientist and I have very little expertise. You should see this article as a mere reflection of my experience to avoid falling into my biases.
I will try to build this piece in chronological order and reflect on my experiences. I will go back in time for you to have a glimpse of how I see Putin and his actions.
2014 and Beyond
In 2014 I was 17 and back then I had little or no interest in Russian politics. I knew that my parents were politically active, but I was studying and that was all I was doing. However, at some point, Mr. Putin decided that he wanted a part of a sovereign state and annexed the Crimean Peninsula. That exploded his ratings. His approval rate went beyond 85% after his “Little War”.
The Ukrainian revolution and the Crimea annexation made Russian propaganda work very intensely. Ukraine has become an enemy in the eyes of a common Russian. Ukraine has been portrayed as a country filled with separatists and nationalists. It has become THE evil on Russian television.
This has not only split Ukraine and Russia, but also it has split Russians. I remember my family losing their friends because people were so brainwashed that it left no other choice. We have lived in this for many years now, feeling that we are “different”. Not supporting Putin makes you a bit alien to the whole Russian reality.
As Putin’s madness has begun to unfold, I started to be interested in politics myself. I have engaged in many protests in Russia since 2018. People started talking about corruption and a lot of young people like myself have become a part of protests in Russia.
Putin has irritated us a lot in these years. After absolutely disastrous handling of the pandemic, we were entering 2022 outraged with Putin. But it was only a minor part of Russians: those exposed to independent media such as Meduza, Novaya Gazeta, TV Rain.
The majority of Russian people mostly consume pro-government media, where Putin is portrayed as a hero and Ukraine as an enemy.
Now when you have a background of the events and a brief glance at how Russians are separated in terms of their views we can move to the war.
The war: nothing makes sense
On the 24th of February Putin started his horrible actions. Today is the 3rd of March when I am editing this article and we still do not understand what the logic behind Putin’s enterprise is. Nothing makes sense.
No one needs this war, both countries suffer from casualties, Russian markets have plummeted immensely and continue doing so up until now. It seems that his mission was to show the world that he will not let NATO spread further to the East.
But the price the world is paying is ridiculous. These exclamations, I reckon, can more or less summarise how educated Russians think about the actions. They see it as a tragedy, as a bloody war between two brotherly nations. A war that destroys the relationships between Russia and Ukraine for decades.
“We are not ashamed”
However, there is a different view. There are a lot of people in Russia that support Putin. According to the latest pro-government estimations after the Russian invasion, his support rate is around 70%. Even though it seems like a great exaggeration, Russian propaganda is very effective and there are a lot of people who support his actions.
I have recently noticed a new hashtag appeared on various social media #wearenotashamed (#намнестыдно). This hashtag is a reference to what Russian educated minorities expressed in their rhetoric.
I myself saw a lot of my university friends and professors describing how ashamed they were of the actions of the Russian army. This new hashtag is used to show that Russian people are proud of their army, that they support Putin, and are not ashamed of his actions.
This hashtag is only a small example of how most of the Russian population feels. They believe that Putin saves Ukraine from the neo-nazi, from genocide. They see Putin as a hero and the only possible cure for the problems in Ukraine. Unfortunately, Russian propaganda does its job well.
Something is brewing
However, there is good news. The good news is that a lot of people do not want the war. You will not see it on Russian streets because of severe police brutality, but there are signs that the elites are not favoring the war.
For instance, during the last week, we saw different celebrities, oligarchs, and even members of parliament speaking out against the war.
There are still not many of those, but I want to give a bit of context to these events. The WHOLE Russian parliament voted for recognizing Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics which implicitly meant Russian troops on Ukrainian territories. The whole Russian parliament is there to support Putin. There is basically no real opposition. Seeing members of parliament speaking out against the war means something. Something brews out there in the elites.
Not only did the political elites start noticing problems, but Russian oligarchs speak out against this war. These are the people that got and stayed rich partially because of Putin. And even they do not support this war.
As for the general population, it is difficult to tell. The support rates might be going up a bit. However, we should understand three things here.
Firstly, we have no proof that this rise really exists as the figures are provided by a pro-government agency. Secondly, this rise is nothing compared to what we saw after the Crimea annexation. He wanted his ratings to rocket this time, but what he had is just a slight increase that will vanish soon. And the price for it does not justify the end. Thirdly, economically people will be hit so severely that it will be impossible not to notice the connection between this war and their deteriorating well-being.
So, even if people are blindly following Putin now, even if they listen to propaganda, there seems to be a chance, they will notice the consequences of Putin’s actions. And this is great hope for all of us.
*For the Chinese version please check: 俄羅斯青年觀點：不支持普丁，你在俄羅斯就活像個異類
Editor: Sylvia Tien
