The head of VTsIOM Valery Fedorov said that after the announcement of the special operation in Ukraine, Russian society was divided into “four Russias”. In an interview with RBC, he explained that this is “Warring Russia”, “Capital Russia”, “Deep Russia” and “Russia has left.”
Speaking about “metropolitan Russia,” Fedorov explained that this is “the petty bourgeoisie, the metropolitan middle class — Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg.» These Russians, under the stress caused by current events, «withdraw into themselves.»
«They try to pretend that nothing has changed,» Fedorov said.
He believes that this category of citizens numbers about 20 million people and they “are not particularly interested in what is happening <…> unless it directly concerns their own safety.»