Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has brought unprecedented destruction to Ukraine and cemented Russia’s role as a revanchist and imperial actor on the international stage. To this end, the Kremlin has sought to mobilize the Russian public into the war effort both through a wide-ranging domestic and international propaganda campaign and through brutal crackdowns on anti-war dissent inside its borders. Facing growing sanctions and international ostracization, many Russians remaining in Russia nevertheless continue to tolerate—if not openly support—Putin and his government.
The latest report in the Atlantic Council’s Russia Tomorrow series, The reluctant consensus: War and Russia’s public opinion, by author Maria Snegovaya, assesses Russian society’s consolidation around Russia’s war on Ukraine, the origin of the “Putin consensus” among the Russian public, and public perceptions of the war among Russians.