Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9516433
By the end of 2023, Russians who support a troop withdrawal from Ukraine “without achieving the war goals” were for the first time more numerous than those who oppose such a move. Ordinary Russians consider the war to be the most important negative fact in their lives and want it to end quickly.
This is the conclusion reached by independent sociologists working for Khroniky (“Chronicles”) and the Public Sociology Laboratory projects. It is backed up by those who measure public opinion for the Kremlin.
Other analysts – from Z-bloggers [pro-war bloggers] to clinical psychologists – have also noticed a lack of mass support for the war effort. They all observe that Russians are not ready to protest to end the war, but nonetheless expect Vladimir Putin to end it. As the March presidential election approaches, the Kremlin’s political strategists seem to be trying to meet this demand.
It was impossible for the Soviet Union to lose in Afghanistan. It was impossible for the USA to lose in Vietnam.
Yet both did. Russia could lose in the exact same sense as the above. Hell Russia could lose in the same way the USA lost in Afghanistan recently.
I"m talking about the election process. Do we believe Russian elections are no longer performative events with a predetermined outcome?
Meh, a blatently fraudelent election could be the catalyst for serious civil unrest and violence
I don’t think Putin has needed to do a lot of election fraud. He rules over the media, and has outlawed any serious opposition. I think of it more as an opinion poll than an election. For Putin I think unpopularity is a threat to regime stability, so he probably takes it seriously.