EISI held a round table about reasons to be proud of Russia at the exhibition-forum “Russia”

The Expert Institute for Social Research (EISR) held a round table on Thursday on the promising topic “Russia: why we are proud of our country.” The event took place at the exhibition-forum “Russia” at VDNKh, so its participants simultaneously signed their pride in both Russias – both the country and the exhibition. Well, towards the end – also for President Vladimir Putin.

On November 23, the EISI traditional Thursday round table was organized for the first time at the “Russia” exhibition and forum taking place at VDNKh. All subsequent EISI events will now be held there until March next year, Kommersant was told on the sidelines of the forum (apparently, the dates are tied to the presidential elections, which are scheduled for March 17, 2024). Let us recall that the large-scale exhibition at VDNH, which opened on November 4 and will last until April 12, 2024, is considered by the presidential administration as one of the main events of the upcoming presidential campaign. During the round table, EISI experts clearly kept this in mind, and therefore decided to combine pride in Russia as a country with pride in “Russia” as an exhibition. And at some moments it seemed that admiration for the forum even came to the fore.

INSOMAR Director of Political Analysis Viktor Poturemsky traditionally presented to his colleagues the results of the research conducted by his company. This time sociologists surveyed visitors to the exhibition-forum. 97% of respondents rated it positively, the same number would recommend visiting it to their friends, and 79% would like to visit the forum a second time. First of all, visitors associate the exhibition with the achievements of Russia (34% of respondents answered this way), with the greatness of the national history (25%), with the prospects and opportunities of the country (14%) and with its future (10%). The dominant emotion from what they saw was pride (51% of respondents). “We are proud that, despite the SVO, our country is developing,” Mr. Poturemsky gave a specific example from the responses of those surveyed.

Political scientist Alexander Asafov, who spoke next, nevertheless shifted the emphasis from the exposition and asked the question of what makes people proud in general. And he himself answered: “We want to be proud of our country. Sociology gives the answer: we want to live in a great country. The basis for pride is belonging to achievements. This demand from society is an important part of our personality. People highlight big things—things that have gone from dreams to reality.” Mr. Asafov included such “large-scale things” as, in particular, the Crimean Bridge, the Vostochny Cosmodrome, the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft and the Mir payment system.

Other speakers joined the round table via video link and listed all the new reasons for pride. “Most countries in the world do not pay attention to fundamental science, because it is expensive and does not immediately bring results. This is a reason for pride that our country pays attention to fundamental science,” said, for example, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science, Alexander Mazhuga. And the head of the space company SR Space, Oleg Mansurov, was, of course, proud of space. Which, according to the businessman, is now closer than we think, because the geodata that we use every day also belongs to technologies in this area.

This speech made the director of the Institute of Modern States, Alexei Martynov, remember that once upon a time he, when he was little, went to VDNKh, and his favorite pavilion was “Cosmos”. As the political scientist noted, the exhibition helps people realize that, although Russia does not produce the iPhone, it can create things that do not exist anywhere in the world and which are undoubtedly more valuable than this phone model. Well, by the end of his speech, Mr. Martynov found another important reason for pride: “The exhibition is mainly about the last 20 years of our life, when the main things that we can be proud of took place. And all these things are somehow connected with the name of President Vladimir Putin, with his support, with his will. The most large-scale projects, the development of entire industries, including completely new ones, were either supported or initiated by the president. Whether anyone likes it or not, this is how it is.”

By the way, the moderator of the round table, EISI employee Daria Kislitsyna, also held a similar position. “One of the narratives of what we are proud of is the president himself. It’s not very correct to call the president a narrative, but nevertheless, people note, in addition to achievements in various fields and industries, that they are simply proud of the president and what he does,” Ms. Kislitsyna summarized what her colleagues said.

Afanasy Sborov