Sociology of the special time

According to VTsIOM, President Vladimir Putin became the “Politician of 2022”, having improved his last year’s result by 17 percentage points at once. The performance of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who took second place, also increased markedly. In addition, for the first time, this rating includes a military general (now the former commander of the group in the NVO zone, Sergei Surovikin) and a deceased politician (founder of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky). Sociologists believe that the choice of the Russians was primarily influenced by the special operation. The political scientist agrees with this conclusion, but urges not to exaggerate the importance of getting into the rating of General Surovikin.

The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) on Wednesday published the results of a traditional survey on the main persons of 2022 in the fields of politics, sports and culture. The rating of “politicians of the year” was expectedly headed by President Vladimir Putin – he was named by 55% of respondents (according to the results of 2021, he received 38%). Mr. Putin has consistently topped this rating throughout the entire measurement period (since 2006), and his best result came in 2014-2015 – 71-74%.

The second place, as in the previous year, was taken by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, who received 21% of the vote and added 8 percentage points over the year. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again rounded out the top three: 13% of Russians still consider him “politician of the year”. Compared to 2021, the indicators of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (from 8% to 10%), Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev (from 2% to 3%) and the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov (from 0% to 2%) increased. The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died back in April, was also included in the rating of “politicians of the year”, who was again remembered by 5% of the respondents.

Finally, for the first time in the history of the rating of politicians, a combat general got into it: for Sergei Surovikin, who at the time of the study (from December 24 to December 27, 2022) held the post of commander of a group of troops in the NVO zone (just on the day the survey was published, the Ministry of Defense announced the appointment Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff, and Mr. Surovikin became his deputy), 2% of respondents voted. Recall that Mr. Surovikin became the commander of the group in early October, and on October 18 he gave a resonant interview to the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

The General Director of the VTsIOM Foundation Konstantin Abramov, in his commentary on the VTsIOM website, noted that the choice of persons of the year was influenced by the CBO. It was against this backdrop that the ratings of Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Mishustin grew, the sociologist explained: the Russians directly associate the decision to start the SVO with the president, and the Cabinet of Ministers is taking measures to keep the economy in the face of anti-Russian sanctions. It should be noted that according to the results of 2021, the main topic of which was the economic recovery after the crisis pandemic year 2020, Mr. Mishustin lost 4 percentage points in the rating of politicians, having received 13% against 17% a year earlier.

The influence of the NWO affected not only politicians. In the rating of writers, the best result (4%) was given to co-chairman of the Just Russia – For Truth party Zakhar Prilepin, who actively supports the special operation and has long been helping the residents of Donbass. In 2022, Mr. Prilepin overtook Alexander Pushkin and Viktor Pelevin, with whom he entered the top three in 2021 with 2% of the vote.

The athlete of the year, according to 7% of Russians, was the figure skater Kamila Valieva, who went to the Olympic Games in Beijing as a favorite in women’s single skating, but made mistakes against the backdrop of a doping scandal, eventually finishing only fourth.

Political scientist Aleksey Makarkin agrees that the choice of persons of the year was determined by the influence of the SVO, but he urges not to overestimate the importance of Sergei Surovikin being included in the rating: 2% of respondents are a very small group of citizens, mostly deeply interested in the progress of the special operation. The expert explains the decrease in Mikhail Mishustin’s indicators in 2021 by the fact that then the society was tired of pandemic restrictions, and the increase in 2022, in his opinion, reflects the preservation of manageability of the economy against the backdrop of “alarmist” forecasts: “That is, the catastrophe did not happen, the economy survived.”

As for the posthumous inclusion of Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the rating, it is due to the fact that “we have few bright politicians,” Mr. Makarkin notes: “Leonid Slutsky (the new leader of the LDPR.— “b”) are poorly recognized, he is not a charismatic and loses to the image of Zhirinovsky. In addition, Mr. Slutsky often appears on television as chairman of the international committee of the State Duma, and he is not perceived as Mr. Zhirinovsky’s successor, the expert believes: “And for many supporters of the party, Zhirinovsky simply cannot have a successor. Therefore, his appearance in the ranking is nostalgia.”

Elena Rozhkova