Over the past year the amount of anxiety expressed on Russian social media has more than doubled, owing to the Ukraine war, a new study said. The study was conducted by the Public Relations Development Company (PRDC), a Russian communications firm founded in 1995, as per Newsweek.
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It showed that the number of anxious comments posted on social media in Russia had increased by 119 percent compared with 2021, and 273 percent compared with 2020, the report said. Russian launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine on February 24 this year.
The PRDC research found that the war, called a "special military operation" by the Russia, is now the top social media concern in 70 out of Russia's 85 regions, and is in the top three in 83 of them. The second-biggest concern was inflation, which has surged across Russia.
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“The main source of anxiety among Russians in the outgoing year was the special [military] operation, as well as related topics: escalation of the conflict with the West and possibility of use of nuclear weapons, sabotage and possible transfer of hostilities to the territory of the 'old' oblasts of Russia, and partial mobilization,” the report said.
{{/usCountry}}“The main source of anxiety among Russians in the outgoing year was the special [military] operation, as well as related topics: escalation of the conflict with the West and possibility of use of nuclear weapons, sabotage and possible transfer of hostilities to the territory of the 'old' oblasts of Russia, and partial mobilization,” the report said.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia will try to make the remainder of 2022 “dark and difficult.”
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“Russia has lost everything possible this year. But [Putin] is trying to compensate for his losses with the cunning of his propagandists following missile strikes on our country, on our energy sector. There are a few days left in this year. We must be aware that our enemy will try to make this time dark and difficult for us,” Volodymyr Zelensky said
"I know that the darkness will not prevent us from leading the occupiers to their new defeats, but we must be prepared for any scenario," Volodymyr Zelensky continued.