Kremlin officials in the entourage of President Vladimir Putin are discussing the possible rise of social discontent in Russia, and the onset of autumn is a factor that worries Moscow’s leadership, Meduza reports.

Several sources who spoke to reporters at the investigative website, which has been officially banned in Russia since early March, say Kremlin officials and political scientists believe that the issue of war with Ukraine has ceased to be central to Russians who support it. and therefore begin to pay attention to other areas of life.

Two sources close to the Kremlin told investigative journalists that the internal political bloc of the Kremlin is discussing and worried about the possible growth of social discontent among citizens, but explained that these discussions are not based on sociological research.

“All sociology is now focused on elections (there will be no federal elections in Russia in September), and research budgets are quite limited,” explains one of the sources.

Both interlocutors of Meduza call autumn the traditional period of growing discontent in Russia.

They mention that in the summer social “concerns” become less important: people are busy with vacations and trips to the country.

The coming of autumn causes concern among Vladimir Putin’s advisers

But in the fall, Russians begin to worry about the difficulties associated with work and fear rising prices, as the optimism of the summer vacation fades.

“In general, summer is a kind of time for a break: warmth, light, working weekdays recede into the background. Autumn, everyone understands: winter is coming, don’t expect anything good,” says one of the sources of Russian journalists ironically.

Another added that preparing children for the start of the new school year on September 1 could be another source of social tension, with people inevitably comparing how much they spent on groceries and other essentials this year after Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine with how much they spent in the past, and the extent of the price increase becomes apparent to them.

Both sources note that the topic of “special operations” is beginning to annoy the Russians, who are “tired” of this topic.

PHOTO: Mykola Vinokurov / Alamy / Profimedia Images

The loss of interest of some pro-government Russians in the war with Ukraine is evidenced by the results of a survey conducted by the private research holding “Romyr”, which show that the audience of the “Pervyi Kanal” and “Russia-1” television channels has fallen by 8.1% and 8%, respectively, since February .

Fully controlled by the Kremlin, these are the most militant Russian television broadcasters, including presenters Volodymyr Solovyov, Olga Skabayeva and Dmytro Kiselyov.

Added to all this is the Kremlin’s concern that prolonging the war and delaying the annexation of the deferred territories until the winter could make the Russians realize that things are not going exactly according to the official “special military operations” propaganda.

• On the same topic: “People will understand that something is wrong”: Vladimir Putin’s dilemma regarding the annexation of Ukrainian territories

Another concern of the Russian authorities is the increase in unemployment

The Kremlin also began to worry about the closure of production facilities in various regions of Russia as a result of the withdrawal of large Western companies.

Unemployment problems are expected in Kaluga Oblast, where factories of major foreign automakers are located, Leningrad Oblast, where there are also large enterprises owned by Western owners or dependent on Western supplies, and in other industrial regions.

The political bloc of the Presidential Administration sees handing out money to Russians as the only means of combating growing social discontent.

Sources of Russian investigative journalists recall that during the restrictions introduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic difficulties caused by it, the Russian authorities provided financial support to the population several times.

As a rule, these measures were aimed at families with children and were implemented before the elections.

“In the fall, the disaffected will try to throw in money. These will be relatively small amounts, but people will still be happy to receive them,” said one of the sources close to the Kremlin.

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