(YEKATERINBURG, RUSSIA) – A new survey of residents in Yekaterinburg has revealed that fear, rather than genuine loyalty, is the primary force maintaining the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s carefully constructed image of national unity.
The poll, highlighted in a recent episode of TVP World’s Break the Fake programme, found that ordinary Russians are increasingly reluctant to express their honest opinions about the war in Ukraine, their uncertain futures and growing domestic problems. Respondents openly admitted that asking the dictator an honest question could result in astronomical fines or imprisonment in a maximum security facility.
Instead of passionate declarations of support for the so-called special operation, what truly concerns Russians is when the conflict will finally end, according to the survey. Young people in particular expressed anxiety about their futures, noting that while there were still some illusions of change in the early 2000s, the country is now rapidly moving towards crisis with problems multiplying daily.
However, expressing such views too loudly carries significant risk in modern Russia, where critics can find themselves branded as foreign agents. The survey indicates that frustration remains confined to private kitchens, criticism stays quiet, and citizens keep watch for who might be listening.
This dynamic, according to the report, is how the Kremlin maintains its version of national unity: keeping the population frightened enough to remain silent. When the main reason for supporting the dictator is fear of prison or being branded a traitor, that popular love requires a remarkable number of police forces to maintain.
The findings come as the Kremlin continues to insist that the occupied Donbas region cannot be governed by third parties. Moscow spokesperson Dmitry Peskov recently rejected proposals for a free economic zone in the region under third party administration, declaring “Donbas is Russia, no third parties.”
Yet residents of Kramatorsk, a city in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, continue to suffer under Russian bombardment. One resident, an ethnic Russian woman, lost her son after her home was struck by a Russian bomb. Following the attack, she cursed Russia on camera despite being Russian herself.
The Kremlin has spent the past five years turning a thriving region into what analysts describe as a wasteland in the name of supposedly protecting it. Moscow is prepared to fight for its exclusive right to kill the very people it claims to have come to save, according to the TVP World report.
In a separate development, the Russian Foreign Ministry and the country’s Central Election Commission have announced that observers from as many as 55 countries plan to attend the Russian State Duma elections scheduled for September 2026. Russian occupation authorities have also announced the arrival of these international experts in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
However, not a single reputable international election monitoring organisation was involved in the process, according to the report. The Kremlin has instead assembled what critics describe as a collection of handpicked foreign guests whose role is to praise the transparency and democracy of the vote on federal television.
Analysts note that any elections held at gunpoint on foreign soil are legally null and void, and no number of compliant observers can transform an occupation into a legitimate process.
The full analysis is available on TVP World’s Break the Fake programme.
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