The Views of Russian Elites on Military Intervention Abroad

Abstract

In the aftermath of the mutiny led by Wagner Group head Evgenii Prigozhin, a lively debate ensued aboutwhat this series of events revealed about the pillars of President Vladimir Putin's support. One way toapproach this issue is to examine the attitudes expressed before the onset of the Russo-Ukrainian War bythose holding positions a few notches below the top leadership in Russia. These are individuals at the apexof their professions - part of an elite stratum whose support, research shows, is more crucial for a dictatorto maintain than that of the mass public. An analysis of trends from a unique dataset extending from 1993to 2020, the Survey of Russian Elites, shows that highly placed Russians exhibit a nuanced combinationof views on issues pertinent to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Although overall approval of the use of Russia's military outside its borders is shown to be much higher in 2020 than it was in the early 2000s, supportfor the unification of Ukraine with Russia is weak, as is approval of military adventurism that comes at theexpense of domestic improvements.