Russian Confidence in the Future Plunges to 1990s Lows
Pessimism has risen by 16 percentage points since the start of the year as Ukrainians strikes and war pressures deepen public anxiety, VTsIOM said.
- On August 19, The Moscow Times reported that a July VTsIOM poll found 66% of Russians expect "difficult times" ahead, marking public confidence at its lowest since the early 1990s.
- These anxiety levels mirror figures from 1991 and 1992, when the Soviet Union collapsed amid hyperinflation reaching 2,500%. Public pessimism has grown by one-third since the year began, according to VTsIOM data.
- Long-Range Ukrainian drone strikes destroyed over 20 Wildberries warehouses and disrupted fuel supplies. John Lough, a senior research fellow at the NEST Centre, noted many Russians now realize the conflict is "a long war" with no end in sight.
- Political analyst Abbas Gallyamov stated that the security Vladimir Putin once promised has been "completely dismantled" across Russia. Neither military personnel nor residents of the Moscow region can feel safe during night-time drone attacks.
- As the war enters its fifth year, Deputy Chief of Ukraine's Defense Intelligence Vadym Skibitskyi warned of continued targeting of energy infrastructure in the Russian Federation. Electrical power and heating networks remain most vulnerable during autumn and winter months.
14 Articles
14 Articles
As ordinary Russian citizens increasingly feel the consequences of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, deteriorating Russian sentiment has reached levels last seen during the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to the portal of Polish public broadcaster TVP.
According to a national poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), Russians' fear of the future has risen to the same level as was seen during the collapse of the USSR and the protracted crises that followed.
The level of pessimism and fear of the future among the Russians has reached record values since the early 1990s when the USSR collapsed. The vast majority of Russian citizens expect serious economic and social difficulties.
Even in the mid-1990s, despite the economic crisis, people were less afraid of the future than they are now.
Russian Confidence in the Future Plunges to 1990s Lows
A poll conducted by the state-run VTsIOM agency in July 2026 revealed that 66% of Russian citizens believe "difficult times" lie ahead for the country, as reported by The Moscow Times on August 19. Public apprehension regarding the future has grown by one-third (+16 percentage points) since the beginning of the year. This shift reflects growing public pessimism driven by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, economic deterioration, and regula…
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