A vast majority of Russians polled by the independent Levada Center said they hadn’t heard of the latest mass protests against President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is spending 30 days in jail for organizing nationwide protests on May 5, where an estimated 1,600 participants were reportedly detained. Two days later, Putin was sworn into office for his fourth overall presidential term that extends his rule into 2024.
When asked about the "He's Not Our Tsar" anti-inauguration protests, 61 percent of Russians surveyed by Levada said they were hearing about them “for the first time,” while a mere 9 percent said they were "well aware" about the rallies.
Only 17 percent of respondents said they were willing to support the protests, nine percent more than those who said in late March that they would be willing to participate in political protests. Levada sociologist Denis Volkov said at the time that demonstrations “simply remain unnoticed by the majority.”
The survey was conducted among 1,600 Russians in 52 Russian regions between May 24 and May 30.
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