Putin's Invasion Part IV: The View from Russia

How It Happened

Axios

News, History, Politics

4.8 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In part four of How It Happened: Putin’s Invasion, Axios World editor Dave Lawler digs into polling indications that Russians are rallying around their president even as Western sanctions and global condemnations escalate. This episode features interviews with a top political opposition leader, the director of the leading independent polling firm in Russia, a prominent sociologist from the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and a journalist on the ground in Moscow. Across these interviews, Lawler sets out to learn why the more horrific the allegations against Russia — such as the apparent massacre of civilians in Bucha— the stronger the impulse seems to be to reject them as lies. Credits: This episode of Putin's Invasion was reported by Dave Lawler, Alison Snyder, and Naomi Shavin. Sara Fischer and Emily Peck contributed reporting. It was produced by Naomi Shavin. Alison Snyder is the series editor. Sara Kehaulani Goo is the Editor-in-Chief. Ben O’Brien is the mix engineer. Mixing, sound design, and music supervision by Alex Sugiura. Theme music and original score by Michael Hanf. Special thanks to Axios co-founders Mike Allen, Jim VandeHei and Roy Schwartz.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Dave Lawler, the world editor at Axios.
0:09.1	In this season of How It Happened, my colleagues and I have been documenting Vladimir Putin's
0:12.8	invasion of Ukraine.
0:14.7	In this episode, we examine how Russians are responding to it.
0:19.7	As the war drags on into its second month, Russia's war casualties are mounting.
0:26.7	The thousands of war crimes are emerging from areas occupied by Russian forces.
0:31.4	Sanctions and inflation are punishing everyday Russians.
0:35.6	But most Russian people are not responding to that external pressure in the way many
0:40.3	in the West anticipated.
0:43.3	In fact, opinion polls suggest that Russians are rallying around this war effort and their
0:48.9	president.
0:53.2	For this episode, recorded six weeks into the invasion, I set out to understand why.
0:59.3	You'll hear from Russia's top independent pollster, a leading Russian sociologist who studies
1:03.4	democracy, and a journalist inside Russia whose life has already changed.
1:08.4	Their insights will help explain how Russians are absorbing the impacts of this war and
1:12.6	the horrors of this conflict.
1:14.8	You'll also hear from a top opposition politician about the resistance to Putin.
1:19.2	You won't hear from the Russian government.
1:20.9	We did ask repeatedly for an interview, but didn't hear back.
1:25.1	From Axios, this is how it happened.
1:28.3	Putin's invasion part four, the view from Russia.
1:47.8	Before this war began, middle class Russians could buy a plane ticket to Europe, work out,
	...

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