Summary

Nothing in almost five years of Russia’s war on Ukraine did more damage to the Kremlin’s hold on Russian public opinion than when Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to forcibly mobilize 300,000 men for the war on Sept. 21, 2022. Levada’s monthly mood survey , run continuously since the 1990s, recorded the sharpest one-time collapse in its history: The share of Russians describing their general mood as “great” fell from 15 percent to 7 percent almost overnight, while those reporting fear more than tripled.

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