MOSCOW, 6 September 2022. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey about the Russian attitudes towards the special military operation in Ukraine.

Public support for the special military operation in Ukraine has been steadily high, within 70-73% over a half a year’s monitoring study. In August, on average, 70% of Russians spoke in favor of the operation; 18% were unlikely to support it; 12% remained undecided.

Russian opinions about the goals of the special military operation also remain stable: in August an average of 39% said the goal was to protect Russia, to disarm Ukraine and not to allow NATO to deploy military bases in Ukraine. According to every fifth respondent, the goal is to protect the population in Donbas (DNR and LNR) (20%). This is followed by “change in political course” in Ukraine and denazification (17%). A further 7% said that the special military operation aims to occupy Ukraine and incorporate it into the Russian territory.

Protest potential has been no larger than 12% since April 2022 (against 18-21% early this year). According to the August data, 12% of Russians said mass protests were possible in their community or area; in February only 21% of respondents thought so. Personal protest mood has been steadily low since March 2022: 11% of respondents showed their willingness to take part in protests if they took place (−7 p.p. since II.2022; 18%).

Average effectiveness indicators for the August 2022 surveys: cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.8073; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0223; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1510. Calculations based on corporate standard:   https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/ 

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

***RR: RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.

VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide daily surveys were conducted March through August, 2022. A total of 1,600 Russians aged 18 and over took part in each survey. Survey method: telephone interviews using a stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted according to social and demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5% for each survey. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.