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THREAD: How much bottom-up pressure for change is there in Russia these days? My Moscow-based colleague @AndrKolesnikov and @dnsvlkv (of @levada_ru) have been doing some fascinating public opinion research on this topic. Their latest paper is just out: bit.ly/2FB3mXk 1/
The Communist system has been gone for nearly 30 years, but “Russians still harbor confused feelings about the private sector. They believe private businesses are more efficient than state-owned ones, yet they also regret that the gov't does not intervene more in the economy.” 2/ 
Soviet-era behaviors and attitudes about paternalism and risk-aversion die hard. As does the Soviet-era understanding that private property boils down to an outmoded yet durable formula: “apartment, car, dacha.” 3/
“They believe it is impossible to both stay honest and get rich, and they distrust big business… They choose paid employment for themselves, but would like their children to have their own businesses and to be independent and successful.” 4/
Herein lies a very interesting paradox about Putin’s Russia and why there are relatively few bottom-up challenges to the existing system. “Change, Russians believe, must still be top-down, is the government’s job,” according to @CarnegieRussia/@levada_ru polling 5/
Kolesnikov and Volkov wrote about this phenomenon last year in a fascinating paper entitled "Do Russians Want Change?"
Highlights:
PDF: carnegieendowment.org/files/VolkovKo… 6/
Highlights:
PDF: carnegieendowment.org/files/VolkovKo… 6/
In 2018 there was “widespread discontent w the raising of the retirement age & a surge of support for opposition candidates & resistance against the ruling party at the ballot box. Yet this is a craving so far for paternalism, an appeal to the gov't to do more to help them.” 7/
“This approach is quite rational. Ordinary Russians prefer a “wait and see” approach, because they understand that, they have no real influence under the current political system.” 8/
Andrei Kolesnikov’s and Denis Volkov’s new paper "Pragmatic Paternalism: The Russian Public and the Private Sector" is out now: carnegie.ru/commentary/781… 8/
Andrei will also be speaking in NYC at my alma mater @HarrimanInst on Thursday, January 24 at an event hosted by @CooleyOnEurasia harriman.columbia.edu/event/remaking… END
