Nearly half of Russians want Putin to make peace poll finds

It’s been almost two years since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and it seems that nearly half of Russians are now ready for Moscow to open peace talks to end the war according to new polling data. 

Bloomberg News recently reported on new survey results from a market research group inside of Russia known as Russian Field, results which revealed that a near-majority of those polled were ready for peace with Kyiv.  

Forty-eight percent of those surveyed by Russian Field believed that Moscow needed to move toward peace whereas thirty-nine percent disagreed and were in favor of the fight continuing. These figures are very important. 

According to Bloomberg News, the Russian Field poll showed for the first time since the invasion began that the number of Russians ready for peace with Ukraine outnumbered the amount who wanted to continue the war. 

Men over the age of forty-five were more likely to support the continuation of the conflict while women and respondents under the age of forty-five favored negotiations based on a summary of the data from Russian Fields. 

Moreover, wealthy Russians supported the continuation of the war more than individuals lower on the income scale, who favored negotiations. Interestingly, seventy-four percent of Russians would support signing a peace agreement.

Bloomberg News noted the percentage of Russians who would support Putin signing a peace was only as high as it was in the recent Russian Field data back in September of 2022 when 300,000 soldiers were mobilized. 

Fifty-three percent of poll respondents opposed a second mobilization but it is unclear if such a high number will affect the Kremlin’s future thinking on the possibility of a second mobilization according to Bloomberg News.

“The apparent rise in public concern is unlikely to influence Putin, who has said he’s only willing to engage in talks that accept ‘the reality on the ground’ of Russia’s seizure of parts of eastern and southern Ukraine,” the news agency wrote. 

“He has shown no willingness to end the invasion he began in February 2022, even as Russian forces have incurred huge casualties and repeatedly been forced to retreat from occupied territory,” the Bloomberg News report continued.

Only thirty-eight percent of respondents said that they supported a second mobilization and the results of support broke down along similar lines as respondents who supported the continuation of the conflict. 

Men over the age of forty-five were more likely to support a second mobilization while half of all men over the age of sixty supported the decision. On the other hand, women and men under forty-five did not support the measure. 

The Russian Field polling data was an interesting mix of other findings as well. But they follow a similar pattern. Those who favored an offensive strategy and who supported a second mobilization wanted the war to go on. 

However, those who would support a troop withdrawal from Ukraine and did not support a second mobilization of soldiers were in favor of negotiations. These findings revealed that the war isn’t so cut and dry for Russians. 

Fifty-six percent of respondents reported that they believed Russia’s military operation in Ukraine was going successfully for the country's armed forces while only twenty-five percent thought the opposite was true. 

It’s important to note that 1,611 people were polled by Russian Field over the telephone between October 21st and the 29th, a time when the country’s armed forces were at the high point of losses in their assault on Avdiivka.