Leonid Volkov: Putin’s Russian Support Base Is Vanishing

LEONID VOLKOV, CHIEF OF STAFF TO ALEXEI NAVALNY: What Putin is doing to the Ukraine is not supported by a majority of Russian people. And if you appraise like public statements made by opinion leaders, you will see a clear and vast majority of public statements against this war, against this military adventure, which was unprovoked and has just no sense and is, of course, like, beyond any comprehension. So, like, for instance, 8,000 scientific workers, like scientists and teachers, high school teachers, signed an open letter to stop this invasion, this war immediately, while only 600 like supported Putin in this war. This is when people are actually threatened to be imprisoned for up to 15 years for anti-war protests and for speaking up against the war. Even with these threats, and even when the government is actually like trying to find some voices in its support, a vast majority of people are speaking up again. Now, of ordinary people, there are still many of them who are like victims of the propaganda who are watching the television, and who tend to believe what television is saying. They’re not a majority anymore. I would estimate it like between 30 and 40 percent. This is, yes, still Putin’s support base, but it is vanishing, first because people try to think more about, like, what’s actually going on. We try to work with them. We try any possible channel of communication to reach out to these people, and, of course, also because of the burden of sanctions that started to make it so it’s now, as we call it, like a fight between the fridge and the TV set, and the fridge will win.

CHRISTAINE AMANPOUR: OK. OK, so let me ask you, because this is what Navalny has just posted on Twitter: “Let us at least not become a nation of frightened, silent people, of cowards who pretend not to notice the aggressive war against Ukraine unleashed by are obviously insane czar.” So you’re trying to reach people. He’s trying to reach people. We heard from the CIA director that, according to us estimates, some 13,000 to 14,000. Russians have been rounded up and detained for protesting. That’s quite a lot, when you consider it in this — when they have criminalized it, when they face 15 years in jail, and the like. Do you believe, though, what very few people believe, that the Russian people will be the one to stop Putin, either one way or the other? People just don’t believe that that’s likely.

VOLKOV: I don’t believe that there is a silver bullet that could stop Putin. I believe that pressure has to be applied on all possible — from all possible directions. What Ukrainian people are doing defending their cities and stopping the aggression is very important.