The share of Russians who consider the war in Ukraine successful has fallen to 50%, the lowest level since the Levada Center, an independent polling organization, began tracking the indicator. In July, 8% of respondents called the war's course "very successful" and 42% "rather successful."
At the same time, 20% of respondents assessed the situation as "rather unsuccessful" and 8% as "extremely unsuccessful." The share of those who found it difficult to answer reached 22%, also a record since the start of the war.
The number of Russians who said they "rather do not support" or "definitely do not support" the actions of Russian troops reached 21%. The share of those who "definitely support" fell to 34%, although in the first month of the invasion it exceeded half.
Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the political analysis firm R.Politik, said a series of Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries and logistics hubs belonging to the online retailer Wildberries brought the war into the civilian economy, for which the authorities were unprepared.
Political scientist Abbas Gallyamov linked the decline in support to the fact that the main demand with which people voted for Putin — security — has been destroyed. According to him, no one in Russia can now feel safe: neither a general, nor a vacationer, nor a resident of the Moscow region, nor a warehouse worker.
Experts at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center wrote that society increasingly believes less in victory, and the Kremlin is losing support amid the impoverishment of the population. At the same time, in their assessment, the regime is protected from discontent through censorship, surveillance, and the readiness of security forces to suppress protests.