Do 68% of Russians really support the invasion of Ukraine? | No. 186 – March 6, 2022

How can you expect to reliably survey a police state that doesn't have freedom of expression or an independent media?

On March 4th a Russian blogger named Anatoly Karlin shared the results of a new survey of Russian citizens conducted by “VCIOM,” a pollster that I think calls itself the “Russian Public Opinion Research Center” (and used to be called the “All-Russian” or “All-Union” “Center for the Study of Public Opinion”). I say “I think” because I do not speak Russian and Google Translate only claims to. VCIOM is also sometimes abbreviated VTsIOM, but these appear to be the same pollster.

According to the poll, 68% of Russians approve of the “special military operation” (their words) in Ukraine, while 22% oppose it. Karlin added commentary, saying: “As I said, there is no meaningful distinction between Putin and the Russian people on this question.”

Wow, that is quite the claim! There is no meaningful distinction between Vladimir Putin and the Russian people on support for the invasion of Ukraine? I don’t know much about Russians, but I do know about polls and mass opinion. One flag that the polls mi…