Russians still love President Vladimir Putin, support his war against Ukraine, believe parts of neighboring countries belong to them and mourn the loss of the Soviet Union.
And this is 2017, nearly 26 years after the U.S.S.R. disintegrated.
Such were the findings of a new poll of Russian public opinion conducted by the Pew Research Center. The poll asked 1,002 respondents a series of questions between February and April of this year.
But it’s not all smooth sailing for Putin, Russia’s authoritarian ruler since 2000, as he heads for election to another six-year term in 2018.
Russians’ approval rating of Putin’s relations with Ukraine has dropped by 20 percentage points in the last two years, to 63 percent. At the same time, however, 87 percent are confident in the Russian leader’s ability “to do the right thing” when it comes to world affairs.
Meanwhile, with the Kremlin continuing to wage war in Ukraine’s Donbas more than three years after it annexed the Crimean peninsula, the report from the Washington, D.C.-based think tank notes that a majority of Russians believe “that there are parts of other neighboring countries that rightly belong to them.”
Aside from Ukraine, Moscow’s other major foreign intervention has been in the conflict in Syria, something which the Pew report finds 46 percent of Russians believe should stay at its current level.
A large majority, 72 percent, say the purpose of military involvement should be to limit casualties, while just a quarter say keeping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power should be a priority.
And in yet more testament to Putin’s staying power, 59 percent of Russians believe their country plays a more important role in the world today than it did 10 years ago.
No bliss domestically
On domestic issues, Putin’s ratings have fallen over the past two years, with a 13 percentage point drop recorded in approval for his handling of both corruption and energy policy from 2015 to 2017.
On the economy, 55 percent of Russians give Putin a positive rating, a drop of 15 percent from 2015.
In general, however, they are divided, with 46 percent saying Russia’s economic situation is good and 49 percent saying it is bad.
After a downturn in 2015 caused in part by Western sanctions and low oil prices, the Russian economy has shown a mild recovery.
But many Russians still see the economy as a major cause for concern, with 71 percent of those surveyed by the Pew Research Center saying that rising prices are a “very big problem.”
Although a majority of respondents reported being happy with the overall direction of the country, many are still more inclined to look backwards rather than forwards — still 59 percent say they see the fall of the USSR as a bad thing for Russia, with that margin increasing to 73 percent for those over 50.
