For First Time More Russians Back Talks With Ukraine Rather Than Continuing War To Victorious Conclusion – OpEd
By Paul Goble
In the Putin dictatorship, the attitudes of the population do not determine policy decisions; but even if this is true, the Kremlin must be concerned that despite its massive propaganda and spending, an independent poll for the first time has found that more Russians favor talks with Ukraine than back continuing the war to a victorious conclusion.
The Russian Field research group queried more than 1600 Russians at the end of October and found that 48 percent favored beginning negotiations with Ukraine while only 39 percent opposed doing so, the first time ever since the start of the expanded Russian invasion of Ukraine that Russians have divided in this way (currenttime.tv/a/opros-rossiyan-o-voyne/32685294.html).
More than half of those questioned say that the special military operation in Ukraine is going successfully. But the share doing so has fallen from 58 percent in June2023 to 56 percent now, the lowest figure the Russian Field pollsters have found since the beginning of that operation in February last year. Only 25 percent say Russian actions have been unsuccessful.
And the survey found another intriguing trend: while 65 percent of Russians tell pollsters that Russia is going in the correct direction, this is the lowest figure Russian Field has found in any of its surveys and is eight percent less than the number of Russians who said this in June 2023.
NATO’s expansion eastwards forced Putin to attack Ukraine having prewarned NATO Chief of the consequences. Russia-Ukraine War: “A War which should not have Happened” the combine blame goes to US-NATO. “Russia is ready to engage with Ukraine, but there should not be any preconditions for talks that should be based on the existing reality,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister said in an interview with Zvezda television on 11 Feb. Russia has maintained this stand since quite some time and President Putin has reiterated the same a number of times. President Putin told Rossiya state television on 22 December, 2022; “We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to engage in talks, we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are.” Peace has been the agenda for all peace loving nations but for US-NATO!