Expert: Focus on Putin ‘disguises a far darker reality’ about Russian support for war

Writing for the Atlantic Council blog, Peter Dickinson wrote a column on Thursday arguing that the world shouldn't be giving Russian people a pass when it comes to the invasion of Ukraine.

Videos have purportedly shown Russian soldiers angry about their orders and eager to bail or become a POW. Back home, however, the propaganda machine is running in full force. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials have claimed publicly that they're only in Ukraine to "liberate" people and accused the Jewish Ukrainian president of being a Nazi. At the United Nations, the Russian ambassador went so far as to claim that Ukraine was bombing itself.

"There is something reassuring about the idea that the carnage in Ukraine is all down to the criminal insanity of one man, said Dickinson. However, talk of 'Mad Vlad' is a comforting myth that disguises a far darker reality."

This has become the largest attack since World War II and Putin's decision to invade has been supported by his people.

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According to the polling data, most Russians support the war in Ukraine.

"In the days following the February 24 invasion, Putin’s personal approval rating actually rose to multi-year highs," Dickinson wrote citing VTsIOM, his rating jumped six percent in the week ending February 27 to reach 70%. Fellow polling agency FOM recorded a seven percent increase over the same period, bringing approval of Putin to 71%."

More and more, he says that people are falling in line with Putin, including using their branding "Z" as a kind of pop culture icon. Meanwhile, domestic opposition to the invasion has been falling. While there were protests in a number of cities, they were relatively small, he said. Russian police are on corners demanding to look through people's phones to see if they support Ukraine.

"Many Russians simply refuse to acknowledge the atrocities that have accompanied Putin’s invasion," said Dickinson."It is tempting to infantilize the Russian public and argue that they are simply being deprived of accurate information, but this is intellectually dishonest. While the country’s mainstream media is strictly controlled by Kremlin curators, Russians are experts in the art of navigating propaganda and can easily access alternative sources of information if they are so inclined."

He said that millions of Russians are buying into the Putin war and Kremlin propaganda around it, even if there are buckets of evidence against it.

Read his full piece at the Atlantic Council.

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