Russians Turn Against Putin’s War

More Russians are against the war than they are for it

Shankar Narayan
7 min readDec 1, 2023

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Oops Putin: Licensed image

These days I start my day by reading the report from the Institute for the Study of War(ISW). Twitter has become X and its evolution or devolution depending on which side of the political spectrum you fall in, has become a tad bit too much for my information consumption. Western publications are slowly taking the back seat. The thirst for independent reporting has taken me to the watering hole called ISW and left me there.

The thinktank popped my eyes open today. For the first time since the onset of the conflict initiated by Putin in Ukraine, a majority of Russian citizens now express opposition to the war. Vladimir Putin will not run a reelection campaign centered around the Ukraine war, but he will pivot to domestic stability and “increased criticism of the West instead of focusing on the war”.

“Putin and other Russian government officials have already signaled their intention to intensify censorship efforts by claiming that some Russian citizens who left Russia and others still in Russia have begun efforts to discredit the upcoming Russian presidential elections and that Russia will do “everything necessary” to prevent election meddling,” wrote the ISW.

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Shankar Narayan

He didn't care what he had or what he had left, he cared only about what he must do.