JRL NEWSWATCH: “The Quiescent Russians: What the War in Ukraine Has Revealed About Putin’s Public” – Foreign Affairs/ Joshua Yaffa
“… From its outset, the system built by … Putin was based on the idea of a disengaged public, with matters of political and civic concern left to those on high. Even as the space for independent political and civic action shrank to near zero and real living standards declined, most Russians saw little reason to participate in collective action: such efforts were far more likely to result in a police baton upside the head or a lengthy prison term than in actual change. … [The current] period of heightened stress and uncertainty has caused Russian society to lean even harder into its fundamental pragmatism. … [E]ven Russians … personally affected by the war … have tended to compartmentalize, refusing to allow this entanglement to lead them to question whether the war is just or Putin has made a strategic mistake. Instead of confronting their government directly, they have focused on adapting: getting their children out of the country, perhaps, or finding a job in a category that makes them ineligible for the draft. Given the climate of wartime censorship and repression in Russia, it is difficult to measure genuine public support for the war there. …”