I think everyone is a lot more political, but of course not everyone is on the same side. There are people who are fully bought in to what the Russian media is

I think everyone is a lot more political, but of course not everyone is on the same side. There are people who are fully bought in to what the Russian media is telling them. They sing Putin's praises and think he will lead them to greatness ("we'll show them!"). There are people who don't like Putin but think that a US-installed government would be worse ("he's a bastard, but he's our bastard"). And then there are those who think Russia should be "free". This last group does not seem to be sure about what it is they want; they just point out all the atrocities committed by the current government and fight amongst themselves about who will be the leader of the opposition. But people have opinions now. A few years ago everyone was largely OK to be a beneficiary of high oil prices, and OK with not paying attention to politics. As for being able to influence something: I think this depends one which group we are talking about. Group 1 is very active. Group 2 is waiting for the whole thing to blow over. Group 3 is waiting for Putin to die and has vague plans of how they are going to be the ones in charge afterwards.