I am going to share a YouTube Channel which I feel like should be required watching for anyone who wants to gain a multi-faceted insight into the Russian population as this war goes on. It is real time street interviews in Russia on extremely poignant, war related questions.
Before I share the source and my thoughts I want to clarify some things that I am fully aware of.
First, watching a handful of videos is pure anecdote and is absolutely not scientific. I know this. One could watch on one hand Sean Hannity street interviews and on the other hand Daily Show Street Interviews and walk away with 100% opposite versions of the idea that “American’s [think/act/feel/understand/etc]”.
In the example above, if you watched both sets of interviews you would be better suited perhaps to say “I have some insight into some segments of American thought”. That is what I offer from this and I can also offer that watching it troubles me. I think it presents a massive societal problem in Russia that makes this far more than “Putin’s war” or simply “Get rid of Putin”
Now I want to present you with the Channel “1420 Russia” and a quick “Who and what is this channel”. (You can click that link to the channel if you want to see it before my thoughts”)
The channel is organized by a young Russian named Daniil. He is very much against the war although he doesn’t discuss that too often he has in the past. He started the channel before the war simply walking around in different Russian cities and places asking street questions. Once the war began he started asking extremely powerful questions about the war. He is a master of creating questions that he believes won’t get him arrested (I always wonder because his channel is getting huge and the reality is that it’s clear what he is presenting). However, he always leaves it up to the answers to speak for themselves.
He is fluent in English but 100% of the interviews are in Russian and he does the subtitles by hand. I speak intermediate Russian an he is honest with his subtitling. I will talk about it more later but I don’t believe he is trying to “prove” anything. I think he’s trying to show the world how Russia feels and he understands it’s an incredibly split divide.
For example, when the mobilization started he simply asked “Now that the mobilization started are you going to go if you are called”. Today the question is “Are you glad that we annexed Ukrainian regions?”
He has explained in the past that he doesn’t selectively edit the videos and he doesn’t selectively choose who he includes. HIs method is that he goes out, finds people willing to speak and collects “x” number and uses those no matter what the result is. He doesn’t cut people mid-stream or re-arrange their content. After watching more than 50 of his videos I consider his approach fair and honest. Far more than the examples on American TV that I gave — and I love the Daily Show but I also know that they are really trying to prove a point. Daniil I don’t believe is doing this.
If I can sum up the takeaway from my completely outside perspective but after watching literally dozens of hours of his content since the war started — and “His content” is really just Russians talking.
Russia is deeply divided in a similar way to the Fox News/Rest of Us situation in the United states. Of note, my mom is a Fox News Cultist and I know it real time. It doesn’t matter the extent or insanity of the lie. Fox News is right. Period.
Transfer this to Russia and Daniil. There are effectively 5 types of people he finds:
1) Those verbally opposed to the war. I think this makes about 15% of the people due to the danger of speaking out it’s a small number.
2) Those who won’t answer deeply but make it clear that they are against the war. This is another 15-20%.
3) Those who don’t want to talk but it’s unclear if they oppose the war or they just don’t want to talk and I would put this at about 10%
4) Those who support Russia but don’t 100% agree with everything.
5) Those who are 100% on board and believe everything from the State TV.
I stopped assigning percentages because it became hard to really decide in the “Pro-Russia” camp what the flavors are but without question in Daniil’s random and highly unscientific sampling it is appears that the “Pro-Russia” side is the Majority.
For myself, regardless of the lack of scientific method I think the most important takeaway from watching it is this:
When you watch how and what the Pro-Russia people say. When you watch it and understand that this isn’t The Daily Show trying to do something for Comedic effect. When you look at the answers through a lens that can be extracted to simply say — “There are a large amount of typical looking Russians who are not only ignorant to the realities that their country is causing in the world but really truly live in a world of a flipped and manipulated perspective”.
If you take Daniil’s sampling even as a snapshot of Moscow alone (he has filmed in other cities but it’s mainly in Moscow and it’s clear it becomes even more pro-Russia in many of the outlying/less educated places), for me if you extrapolate up into the millions, there are millions and millions of Russians who have a perspective on the situation that is supportive, not knowing or caring about the actual facts and who buy into Putin’s power structure’s concepts.
I will leave it with that. Here is the video from today where he asks if people are happy about the newly annexed regions. I think the answers are extremely insightful (and personally I think it’s in a dangerous way). I think watching several of these videos will give incredible insight.