Will there be a war? What are Russians prepared for?

Viktoriia Hubareva

Ukrainians don't understand why Russians don't go to rallies against Putin 

Recently, Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Hrekhov jokingly published a post "A wave of anti-war rallies swept across Russia," accompanied by photographs of empty squares in various Russian cities.

But there are no "Peace Marches" in Russia. Earlier, the Russians went to such a rally twice: on March 15 and September 21, 2014; at that time, the issue of Crimea became acute. Protesters were counted differently: Russian media reported on tens of thousands of people, and foreign media reported on hundreds of thousands of protesters. There were other protests, but all of them took place in 2014, were spotty, and few. Some of them ended in arrests of protesters; this is due to the ban on protests in the streets without the consent of the police. The same rules apply in Ukraine.

Now that the situation with the Russian military on Ukraine's borders and the statements of world political leaders is getting worse, Ukrainians don't see any civic support from the Russians at all. Russians are in no hurry to draw banners and take to the streets demanding not to invade Ukraine. What is the reason: unformed civil society, totalitarian regime, anti-Ukrainian and militaristic propaganda, or all at once? Let's try to understand and look at what is happening in the neighboring state, within the information field of the Russian Federation.