According to a sociological survey, citizens of the Russian Federation are most afraid of sabotage, rebellions and gypsy moth

Subversive activity on the territory of the Russian Federation remains the main source of fear for Russians: by the middle of the year, the anxiety associated with it had doubled. This follows from the next report as part of the National Anxiety Index. KROS”, prepared by the communications company of the same name based on the results of the second quarter of 2023. According to the responses in social networks, the leaders of the rating were the failed rebellion of the Wagner PMC and the invasion of the gypsy moth in various regions of the country.

In April-June, sabotage activities caused the greatest fear among Russians. This anxiety remains the leader of the CROS rating for the second quarter in a row. However, if at the beginning of the year the total index of anxiety associated with sabotage was 683.4 media young (the unit used by CROS for the reproduction of anxiety), then by the end of the second quarter it more than doubled, to 1584.8 media young.

Recall that experts rank the fears of Russians based on an analysis of media news (“media index”), as well as posts and comments on social networks (“social media index”). The total index shows the scale of the “information wave” of a particular topic, and the “accumulation” index shows how much it excited ordinary Internet users. If a problem is actively replicated by the media, but does not find a response in social networks, then the authors of the study refer to this topic as “pseudo-fears”.

As follows from the report, the key event that formed the “sabotage” anxiety was the drone attack on Moscow on May 30th.

Fear was intensified by the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg on April 2, which resulted in the death of military commander Vladlen Tatarsky, an attempted UAV attack on the Kremlin on May 3, an attempt on the life of politician Zakhar Prilepin on May 6, a raid by saboteurs in the Belgorod region on May 22-23, as well as drone attacks in the Crimea, Moscow region, Belgorod, Kursk, Kaluga, Voronezh, Bryansk and Tula regions.

On second place in the total index of anxiety was failed mutiny of Wagner PMC (1158.2 media young). Although the performance of the mercenaries was promptly stopped, the quick peaceful resolution of the crisis gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories in social networks that contributed to further escalating this anxiety, the authors of the study note.

Troika natural disasters closed the main fears – fires and floods (549.5 media young). Anxiety related to the Ukrainian counteroffensive (532.3), the growing nuclear threat (414.2), food and alcohol poisoning (132.4), issues of conscription and mobilization (132.3), attacks by stray dogs (120.4), the invasion of gypsy moth and other pests (56), as well as the infringement of Russian sports on the international arena (35.8) are next.

Interestingly, the “survival rate” index showed a slightly different picture in the second quarter.

leader according to the response of Internet users unconditionally became mutiny PMC “Wagner”: the actions of mercenaries in social networks were discussed 4.6 times more actively than in the media. On second place suddenly appeared gypsy moth: the winged pest became the hero of posts and comments 1.7 times more often than the news.

It should be noted that fires and floods, which were actively covered in the media, did not cause a similar stir on the Internet and, as a result, according to the “index” of survival, they moved into the category of “pseudo-anxiety” (0.3) along with the infringement of Russian sports (0.3) and the growth of the nuclear threat (0.6).

“For the first time since the start of a special military operation (NVO, February 2022.— “b”), we see that people are more acutely aware of other, unrelated topics. The undisputed leadership in the survival rate of anxiety associated with the crisis of June 23-24 is rather a temporary phenomenon, since the armed uprising, of course, was a shock event, but it was quickly stopped, ”explains Andrey Lebedev, director of analytics at CROS.

However, Valery Fedorov, general director of VTsIOM, notes that the subject of concern of Russians for the past year and a half has remained unchanged – this is “generally what is happening in the NVO zone”: “As for the rebellion, it can be put in second place. It had a strong but short-term effect – everything happened very quickly, on Saturday. Many simply did not have time to turn on.

Andrew Ashes