4 ms·

Genuine question: how much does Russian public opinion matter? It's not like Russia has free elections. Iran's Islamic Republic seems pretty secure despite low

• outworlder 5y ago
  Popular opinion in a dictatorship matters very little. Much more important is the opinion of other people in power. Those might see how unpopular the dictator is with the masses as an opportunity and 'forget' to deploy some security measures... There's a reason sanctions are being applied to rich families.
• vkou 5y ago
  > Genuine question: how much does Russian public opinion matter If it didn't matter, internal Russian propaganda organs wouldn't be firing on all cylinders. The press is not just a 'jobs' program. Every government requires the consent of the governed. Democracies, semi-democracies, dictatorships, autocracies, theocracies, all of them only work because people believe in them. For this reason, all forms of government put a lot of effort into manufacturing consent among the people they govern.
• sofixa 5y ago
  It matters of course, because if the people get pissed enough they'll topple the dictatorship, especially if the security services get disenchanted as well.
• hutrdvnj 5y ago
  If Putin would be seen as a brutal murderer by many russians, then chance are that there are some who could try to assassinate him, like there were many assassination attempts to Hitler.