Putin has supported filmmakers who create works that justify the war. There have been few takers. He can order such videos, but he can’t always get the results he wants. Rather than risk more anti-war protests by jailing filmmakers, he uses his uneasy control over social media and the internet to generate support using bots and foreign operatives to create favorable messages. This is quickly seen as astroturfing and ignored. Putin has also shut down internet access in parts of the country where opposition is most active. These shutdowns cannot last too long because the Russian economy cannot operate without internet access.

Before 2022, Russia had a small but vibrant independent media. Once Ukraine was invaded, that media fled rather than face shutdowns or assassination. Many of these Russian journalists established an online presence from exile. From there, they provided honest news in Russian and Ukrainian. The Ukrainian media did the same thing, and Russian families often found out what had happened to their missing sons by consulting Ukrainian internet sites that maintained photos of dead Russian troops and whatever information they had about them. Many videos were also posted. The age of cellphones makes it impossible to hide what is going on anywhere.

With the war now in its fifth year, most Russians are trying to ignore it. The war has crippled the Russian economy, and there is growing unemployment. The forcible kidnapping of young men for the army still produces the occasional fistfight between the kidnappers and angry Russian civilians. But the kidnappers are armed, and a few shots into the air halt the fight and scatter the protesters.

The growing war fatigue has left exiled Russian journalists with an audience that wants news about anything but the war. When a Ukrainian drone hits their town or neighborhood, locals turn to social media for news and explanations. Most Russians oppose the seemingly endless Ukraine war. Then the government decided to ban the only political party that urged Russians to vote against the war and those who supported it. This sparked a sharp increase in interest in the peace party on social media.

Russia’s Supreme Court decision to remove the only registered party openly campaigning for peace, Yabloko, from the ballot for September’s State Duma election has revived the question of how many Russians oppose the Kremlin’s war and how much space remains to express that opposition. Some young Russians posted videos, including a famous actor, Alexei Yarmushchik, who posted a video online talking to Vladimir Putin and saying that he did not want Putin as President and did not believe that Crimea belonged to Russia. Yarmushchik feared retaliation, but there was none, just suggestions that he keep quiet for a while before continuing the criticism. James F Dunnigan