At the end of September, against the background of the announced partial mobilization, public sentiment deteriorated sharply. Feelings of tension, irritation, fear and longing have grown. There has not been such a drop in morale in all the time of observations. At the same time, half of the respondents demonstrate confidence in the future. Two thirds of respondents feel free.
In September the Russian society has gone through a major stress from the news of partial mobilization. There was a sharp drop in morale. The number of respondents with a “good mood” decreased to 7% (from 15% in July), about “normal even condition” to 45% (from 65% in July). The numbers of those who feel “tense and irritated” has increased from 17% to 32% and number those who feel “fear and longing” rose from 4% to 15%. There has not been such a sharp one-time mood deterioration during the entire time of observations. As a result, positive sentiments at the end of September only slightly prevailed over negative ones, a similar ratio was last observed in 2000.
Respondents aged 18-24 (63%), those who can afford durable goods (60%) and those who believe that things are going in the right direction in the country (63%) most often spoke about their excellent or normal condition. More negative assessments of their own mood are characteristic of respondents over 40 (about 50%), those who can barely afford food and who have enough money for clothes (also about 50%), and respondents who believe that the country is moving on the wrong path (69%).
On the question of whether respondents feel confident in the future, the respondents were equally divided. It should be noted that this question was last asked two years ago, and it does not show the changes that could have occurred in recent months.
Most of all, respondents who believe that things are going in the right direction in the country, who approve of the president’s activities, and those who can afford durable goods feel confident in the future: among them, 67%, 61% and 64% feel confident in the future, respectively.
The respondents who do not feel such confidence prevail among those who think that the country is moving on the wrong path, who do not approve of the president’s activities and who barely have enough for food. In these groups, the proportion of respondents who do not feel confident is 81%, 88% and 64%, respectively.
Two-thirds of respondents (69%) of respondents say that they feel free in our society, slightly less than a third (29%) hold the opposite opinion. It seems that this distribution is the result of the mobilization of public opinion that took place in February-March of this year.
Respondents who believe that things are going in the right direction in the country (86%), who approve of the president’s activities (81%), as well as those who live outside major cities, most often say that they feel free.
Most of the respondents who do not consider themselves free are represented among those who think that our country is moving on the wrong path (62%), who do not approve of the president’s activities (69%), and those who live in Moscow (49%).
METHODOLOGY
The survey by the Levada Center was conducted September 22 – 28 2022, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample was comprised of 1631 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The answer distribution is presented as percentages of the total number of participants along with data from previous surveys.
The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for indicators around 50%
2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%
2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%
1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%
The ANO Levada Center is included in the registry of non-commercial organizations acting as foreign agents.