One Year Later, Crimeans Prefer Russia

[marmar]

According to a survey that Bloomberg contributor Leonid Bershidsky called “the most representative independent poll taken on the peninsula since its annexation,” 82 percent of Crimeans fully support their region’s inclusion in Russia while only 4 percent spoke out against it.

The poll was conducted by Ukrainian political scientist Taras Berezovets, a Crimea native and founder of an initiative aimed at building “Ukrainian soft power on the peninsula,” Bershidsky reported. Berezovets spoke to 800 people in Crimea by telephone between Jan. 16 and Jan. 22. The results “were something of a cold shower to Berezovets.”

Berlin-based Bershidsky writes at Bloomberg:

Berezovets is inclined to credit Crimea’s “Orwellian atmosphere” for some of that near-unanimity. He’s probably right. Given the ubiquitous FSB attention and the arrest of some pro-Ukrainian activists— the persecution of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov is the cause celebre—as “extremists,” few people are likely to be brave enough to condemn the annexation on the phone, especially when the caller is a stranger. In Russia itself, polls show 85 percent support for Putin, but it’s hard to calculate how much of that is motivated by caution: it’s best to treat those numbers as an indication that most people are willing to acquiesce than to protest.

“Yet,” Bershidsky continues, “answers to other, more neutral questions show Crimeans are not interested in going back to Ukraine.” .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/one_year_later_crimeans_prefer_russia_20150206

[msongs]

1. 4% did not want to be disappeared into the gulags nt

[Igel]

2. It also pays to think about another post earlier today.

It considered that most people thought torture yielded positive results, and the claim was that constant repetition of that claim by the media yielded a lot of misinformed opinions.

Ukrainian stations are gone and often blocked even over the Internet; there's a steady diet of reports on abuse abuses by Ukrainian fascists against Russians, most of which are one-sided, often not quite as represented, and more than a few times just false.

The % is still probably over 50%. For the same reasons that many whites fled school districts after integration. Partly avoidance, partly promises of greener pastures.