Sure but if a propagandized population is hellbent in what they believe, they are a danger. Just because they have been brainwashed doesn’t mean we should let our guard down out of pity. It should make us more alarmed because they would actually go and do something batshit crazy.
Considering the ridiculous politics here in America, I don't find the 70% statistic hard to believe. News is propaganda here, and people support terrible things all the time, so why should Russia be different?
> It's ridiculously easy to influence people through propaganda.
I think not enough people understand this point. So many believe that they are immune to propaganda because they laugh at some that they see. But they do not laugh at the propaganda that does influence them. There's different propaganda for different people. This is the same underlying arguments for the privacy avocation groups, but I don't want to derail the conversation at hand.
> It's ridiculously easy to influence people through propaganda.
Sure, but in democracies (or any system where legitimacy depends on the "will of the people"), why the people believe something isn't usually considered relevant.
They were released by Levada, it's now been some time that they are being influenced by Kremlin.
None of my friends / relatives / acquintances supports this war (only my GF's mother). That is a piss-poor statistic, but the sad truth is that there simply cannot be any reliable sociology in a country where saying "no to war" leads to criminal prosecution.
I think it's also crucial, that from people who "support this war", most support the image they see on TV, not the real-world atrocities. Most of people who support this war think they are fighting "battalions of NATO soldiers from Poland" and a small group of nazis who threaten Ukraininan soldiers with death if they don't go into battle. For majority it's impossible to fathom fighting with brotherly Ukrainians.
"70%" number is effectively meaningless, it might be 30 or 90, but it is a fact that the war is supported by Russian society. They may not _like_ it but they _support_ it. If Putin says the war is over now, Russians would support that too.
It’s honestly very unsettling to think about.