Do The Russians Love Putin?

On 3/13/2022, a Medium user named Colin Robinson published an article titled “Leftists in Ukraine don’t all think the same,” and I am mentioned. The article is on the topic of people generalizing the populations of both Ukraine and Russia during the recent conflict, and although it makes some good points, their are a couple of things that need to be noted about it.

My mention comes in the form of a response to my article “Mindlessly Hating Everything Russian Will Not Save Ukraine,” published on 3/10/2022. Here is what Colin has to say:

Josine goes on to say that recent large anti-war demonstrations in Russia prove that “the majority of Russians are against the invasion” and that Putin “in no way cares about the people of Russia”. In short, Josine thinks Putin is bad, but the Russian people are good. And yet — * Recent opinion polls in Russia show rising support for Vladimir Putin.

*Ellipses changed to em-dash

For the record, the source Colin uses is a 2/23/2022 article from The Conversation with the headline “Putin’s public approval is soaring during the Russia-Ukraine crisis, but it’s unlikely to last.” The article says that Putin’s approval rating has gone from sixty-one percent to sixty-nine percent, which the article also notes is incredibly low considering how Putin’s approval rating usually is: