Russia has a population of ~145 million people. I don't think you make any assessment of public support for the war based on the actions of five of them.
Russia has a population of ~145 million people. I don't think you make any assessment of public support for the war based on the actions of five of them.
One certainly cannot infer a percentage of public support from this as if it were an opinion poll.
However, that Ukraine/NATO could apparently recruit five indicates there is a cohort of Russians sufficiently opposed to Putin's war to participate in asymmetric attacks on Russian infrastructure, and otherwise willing to form some degree of resistance underground opposed to Putin.
A resistance movement of that sort need not enjoy majority support within the population to inflict significant damage to Putin's war efforts.
Nor is this the first intimation of such a resistance effort. Back in May there was media speculation Ukraine was conducting a campaign of sabotage deep within Russia.
The FSB may very well just have given us confirmation from the Russian side that this is indeed happening, and that there is a Russian resistance movement to Putin operating behind the scenes.
Russia has a population of ~145 million people. I don't think you make any assessment of public support for the war based on the actions of five of them.
One certainly cannot infer a percentage of public support from this as if it were an opinion poll.
However, that Ukraine/NATO could apparently recruit five indicates there is a cohort of Russians sufficiently opposed to Putin's war to participate in asymmetric attacks on Russian infrastructure, and otherwise willing to form some degree of resistance underground opposed to Putin.
A resistance movement of that sort need not enjoy majority support within the population to inflict significant damage to Putin's war efforts.
Nor is this the first intimation of such a resistance effort. Back in May there was media speculation Ukraine was conducting a campaign of sabotage deep within Russia.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220508060415/https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220508-is-ukraine-conducting-a-sabotage-campaign-inside-russia-1
The FSB may very well just have given us confirmation from the Russian side that this is indeed happening, and that there is a Russian resistance movement to Putin operating behind the scenes.