On President Putin’s popularity: Evidence from survey experiment on the streets of Moscow

During his sixteen years in power Vladimir Putin has enjoyed high approval
ratings. Despite a recent deterioration of Russia’s economy the President
remains very popular. The research paper studies the possible effect of
allegedly threatening media content on the support for Putin using survey
experiments conducted on the streets of Moscow. The study explores whether
experimentally induced anxiety may influence citizens’ support for a
controversial internet censorship policy, and that, in turn, can help to
understand whether people may alter their attitudes based on the frightening
signals from media. The experimental evidence suggests that priming may
induce confusion-anxiety emotions. The threatening effect of media content
elicited by priming was not detected. The framing of internet censorship policy
has merely a moderate effect on tested attitudes, suggesting that the level of
Putin’s public support may not be that high.