Putin and Peskov called on Russians to “self-censor” – ISW

The Kremlin has made new attempts to publicly reject criticism of the war in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has made new attempts to publicly reject criticism over the war in Ukraine , calling on Russians to “self-censor” and be careful in their statements.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his press secretary Dmitry Peskov made corresponding theses this week, the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) notes .

At the International Cultural Forum, in which Putin took part on November 17 in St. Petersburg, the dictator emphasized that Russians supposedly have the right to express their own point of view. He was probably hinting at the war in Ukraine in this way, the report says. At the same time, Putin emphasized that many educated people do not follow relevant events, which means they do not understand the full picture.

“The head is not only an instrument for speaking, but also for thinking before saying anything,” said the dictator.

In a video interview published on November 17, Peskov also said that during war there should be a level of censorship that would be unacceptable in peacetime. Putin’s press secretary recalled that the line between criticizing the Russian military and discrediting the Russian armed forces is very thin, and advised those who want to “indiscriminately” speculate on the topic of the Russian military and criticize them to “think ten times” before doing so.

At the same time, Peskov, commenting on the issue of the upcoming presidential elections in the Russian Federation, expressed the opinion that he “has no doubt” about the victory of the current leader.

According to Peskov, Putin’s successor should be exactly the same as Putin.

Almost half of Russia wants Putin to stop the war in Ukraine

Bloomberg recently published the results of Russian public opinion regarding the war in Ukraine. The corresponding survey was conducted on October 21-29. For the first time, almost half of the respondents’ answers did not coincide with Putin’s goals – about 48% of people in the Russian Federation support peace negotiations and strive to end the war with Ukraine. This is the highest figure since the start of the “big” war in 2022.

(C)UNIAN 2023