(MOSCOW, RUSSIA) – Russian public support for the war has collapsed to its lowest level in a year, with only 50% of citizens now believing the military campaign is proceeding well, according to a new Levada poll. The figure has plunged from 69% just one month ago, coinciding with Ukraine’s intensifying long-range drone campaign against Russian territory.
The polling data revealed that 42% of respondents described the war as going “well” or “okay,” while 20% admitted it was going “badly,” and 8% conceded it was going “very badly.” The proportion of Russians too afraid to answer the question also reached a record 22%, suggesting the true level of discontent may be significantly deeper than official figures indicate.
The Kremlin’s response to the collapsing morale has not been to reconsider the invasion but to accelerate preparations for mass mobilisation. A controversial bounty system for recruiting soldiers has expanded to 56 of Russia’s regions, with so-called “mobilisation specialists” earning up to one million roubles ($12,000, £9,500, €11,000) for every recruit delivered to military authorities. The scheme effectively transforms Russian citizens into prey for state-sanctioned headhunters.
The financial incentives are starkly graded by regional wealth. Delivering a recruit in St. Petersburg commands the maximum payout, while dragging a fellow citizen to a mobilisation van in impoverished Buryatia earns the bounty hunter as little as $500 (£395, €460). These advertisements have appeared across Russian newspapers, seeking “chief specialists in mobilisation training” and “leading specialists of the department of mobilisation, civil defence and emergency situations” in what amounts to a nationwide skull-cracking recruitment drive.
The desperation behind this programme is exposed by data from Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. Even comparing only casualties inflicted by this single branch of Ukraine’s military, Russian losses are now outpacing total monthly recruitment. In July, Russia recruited 29,800 personnel while the Unmanned Systems Forces alone accounted for 30,957 Russian casualties. The cumulative deficit since January stands at over 8,000, and the trend shows no sign of reversing.
Public unrest is increasingly spilling into the open as the September fake elections approach. Prominent Russian actor Vadim Demchog issued a blunt video address directly to the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, stating in harsh terms that nothing can save him. Staring unblinkingly into the camera with the controlled fury of a trained performer who has abandoned all caution, Demchog delivered his verdict:
“Iranian drones won’t help you. Kalibrs and Grads won’t help you. Your bullets will run out. You will be trampled, and I will be glad.”
The video went viral across Russian social media within hours. Demchog subsequently released a follow-up declaring he would not flee the country, stating, “I am not leaving Russia. We are in a tenuous period right now.” The statement was a calculated gamble on the Kremlin’s pre-election reluctance to create high-profile political prisoners, exploiting a narrow window where the dictator cannot afford the optics of dragging a beloved actor to prison.
The actor was not alone in his public meltdown. An American farmer, Justice Walker, who had spent 20 years building a dairy operation in Krasnoyarsk and had previously been paraded by Kremlin propagandists to legitimise the regime, was informed this week that his family is being deported and everything he built will be seized. His response, posted to social media, captured the dawning horror of a man who had wilfully ignored every warning about doing business in a mafia state:
“They said the government called today. It is just mindboggling. I cannot believe it. My family is being deported from the country.”
Walker appeared visibly shattered in his video, a man confronting the immutable truth that in Putin’s Russia, any foreign investment is merely a loan the Kremlin intends to repossess the moment it becomes convenient. The farmer was not sent to the front or imprisoned on fabricated charges, which by the standards of the regime counts as extraordinary leniency. Kremlin propagandists had previously used him in a 2019 video suggesting Americans could safely move to Russia and build a business, a promise now exposed as worthless as a rouble-denominated savings account.
In Tyumen, a city of 700,000, residents are fleeing in droves after a months-long water crisis merged the local river, raw sewage lines, and the public drinking water supply into a single toxic stream. Floating livestock carcasses have joined the unspeakable concoction. One resident, filmed washing her hair in a filtered sink, delivered her own viral outburst of despair:
“What is wrong with the water? Why do I have to wash my hair in the sink? Even with all the filters, this water stinks. I don’t understand. We all stink of filth. I am standing on my tiptoes.”
The crisis is the direct result of 26 years of infrastructure neglect, with all available government funds diverted to the war. Residents are selling their apartments and packing their possessions into cars, abandoning the city as the stench renders entire neighbourhoods uninhabitable.
The fuel crisis sparked by Ukraine’s refinery strikes has produced its own cascade of domestic fury. In the city of Kapustin Yar, half the municipal garbage truck fleet has broken down due to poor-quality fuel, causing refuse to pile up in the streets. The mayor’s office acknowledged that low-grade petrol, itself a product of the refining capacity crunch, had crippled the collection vehicles.
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