I spent six weeks in St. Petersburg on a work assignment in 2010. There were a couple things that surprised me about the Russians I spoke with about politics.
First was they did not seem hesitant in the least to talk about politics or even criticize their government, even more so than Americans in some regards as most of us are a bit hesitant to talk politics in a business setting. This surprised me because I figured there would sort of a holdover from the Soviet Years where people would be looking over their shoulder and afraid to say much. But that did not seem to be true at all, if anything its just the opposite.
Second, they genuinely like Putin. Even the ones that criticized things he, or the Russian government, had done, had nothing but praise for Putin as a person. I heard the same things over and over, "Putin is strong." "Nobody pushes him around" "He gets things done." "He's made other nations respect Russia again."
Would you recommend visiting Russia on a trip? I always wanted to go there.
Lost in the background clutter is the fact......... Vladimir Putin saved Mother Russia from dying
His primary task was to save Mother Russia
Sort of the same things we say about Trump
Censorship in modern Russia is very selective. The average man is more or less free to criticize the government. The media is another story. Some criticism is allowed in some areas, but in the important areas, it’s Kremlin propaganda.
And yes, Russians mostly do like Putin. He’s seen as having saved Russia.
And I always heard when asked who their favorite US President is, most said “Reagan”, because they saw him as a true leader.