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.