Russians support Kremlin-backed militants, but don’t want open war
Russia’s authoritative Levada Centre has made public its latest public opinion survey which continues to show huge support for the Kremlin-backed militants in eastern Ukraine. Since it also finds that for 94% of the population, television is their main source of information, this is probably not surprising,
The survey carried out from 18-21 July found that 64% closely follow events in Ukraine.
94% say that television is their main source of information which the Levada Centre itself says results in the respondents being totally convinced that they are being presented with an objective view of reality.
Asked whether they agreed that the Russian media are waging a propaganda information war against Ukraine. 15% said that yes, they agreed and approved of this, believing it justified by the situation in Ukraine; 10% said they agreed and consider the media policy to be dangerous and harmful; 58% are convinced that the Russian media give objective coverage (17% didn’t know).
Do you think that Ukraine’s leaders were correct to begin their anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine?
| Definitely | 2 |
| Probably | 14 |
| Probably not | 22 |
| Definitely not | 49 |
| Hard to say | 13 |
Do you agree or disagree with the following?
|
| Definitely agree | Probably agree | Probably disagree | Totally disagree | Don’t know |
| Petro Poroshenko, recently elected President of Ukraine is the legitimate leader of the country | 4 | 13 | 28 | 35 | 20 |
| Russia was forced to bring troops into the Crimea to prevent bloodshed | 32 | 37 | 11 | 8 | 12 |
| The referendum in the Crimea on joining Russia was legal | 51 | 35 | 3 | 1 | 10 |
| The referendum in Donbas on joining Russia was legal | 37 | 40 | 6 | 1 | 16 |
| Putin should have sent troops to the south-east of Ukraine | 9 | 20 | 31 | 20 | 20 |
| Participation by Russian volunteers in the activities of the militants in the south-east of Ukraine is entirely legal and justified | 19 | 47 | 12 | 4 | 19 |
How do you think the majority of people in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts view the following ..
|
| Entirely positively. | Probably positively | Probably negatively | Definitely negatively | Don’t know |
| The latest actions by Ukraine’s leadership | 1 | 4 | 24 | 60 | 11 |
| The actions of the government forces and National Guard | 1 | 7 | 22 | 55 | 15 |
| The actions of the militants opposing the government forces and National Guard | 20 | 48 | 8 | 3 | 21 |
| The latest actions by Russia’s leadership | 16 | 45 | 9 | 3 | 28 |
http://levada.ru/28-07-2014/ukrainskii-krizis-vnimanie-i-otsenki
With respect to the key role played by television in forming public opinion in Russia, see, for example:
New low in Russia’s propaganda war where viewers heard graphic, and entirely fictitious, claims that the three-year-old son of a militant had been crucified and his mother tortured
Check your sources, Mr Lavrov where viewers were shown video footage from Fallujah (Iraq) in 2004 and told that this ‘proved’ that the Ukrainian military were using prohibited phosphorous bombs to destroy Semenivka near Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine
Such attempts to trick their audiences with footage from different conflicts altogether have been widely reported in Ukraine and abroad, but muffled by mainstream media sources in Russia
Russia Today’s “Genocide in Eastern Ukraine”: Sick, distorted and deleted The lies in this purported ‘documentary’ were so gross that the film was removed from the RT
The above have stood out, however it should be realized that they are part of a daily diet of biased coverage and downright lies. For most Russians there is also no alternative to this fare making it entirely realistic that a very large percentage simply don’t realize that they are being misled.
(Halya Coynash)