Moscow Times/Levada Center: Majority of Russians Back Continuation of Syria Campaign

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – February 16, 2016)

Russians want their country’s military campaign in Syria to continue, according to a recent poll by the independent Levada Center pollster, the RBC news website reported Monday.

The majority of Russians are convinced the war in Syria needs to continue, with 18 percent categorically backing Russia’s involvement in the conflict and 41 percent back at least Russia’s air strikes on Islamic State positions.

The poll also revealed that in the last six months Russians became less interested and less well-informed about events in Syria. Just 18 percent of those surveyed said they closely follow events in the country.

In November and October 2015, when Russia’s air strikes on Syria were more intense, 25 percent of respondents said they closely followed events.

The number of respondents who said they knew a little about the conflict but didn’t follow it closely was 69 percent, in October and November, it was 64 percent.

A total of 13 percent of respondents in January said they were not at all interested in events in Syria.

The poll was conducted at the end of January in 48 Russian regions among 1,600 people aged between 18 and 48. The margin of error did not exceed 3.4 percent.

The Islamic State is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.