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Over half of Russians believe ‘cancel culture’ should be cancelled, poll shows

It is noted that the overwhelming majority of Russians, or 89%, are aware that Russian scientists, cultural figures, musicians and students have faced sanctions pressure this year

© AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Every other Russian polled believes that Russian officials should resist cancel culture aimed at Russia, according to data from the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center that was released on its website on Wednesday.

"The Russian government should seek to change the policy directed at Russia and resist cancel culture," according to 53% of Russians, the pollster, known as VTsIOM, said in a statement. That’s down from 60% in April 2022, it said.

According to the data, another 30% of respondents said Russia shouldn’t take any measures. More than half of those polled struggled to answer what consequences the policy of canceling Russia could hold.

According to VTsIOM, the overwhelming majority of Russians, or 89%, are aware that Russian scientists, cultural figures, musicians and students have faced sanctions pressure this year. Just 11% of those polled hadn’t heard about it.

When asked what cancel culture is, respondents answered that it was the removal of an individual from society or subjecting him to ostracism (24% of those aware). Also, some of those polled associated the term with Russia (as in "the cancellation of Russian culture," according to 21%, and "the cancellation of all things Russian," according to 9%).

The statement said the term "cancel culture" has gained recognition over the past six months. To date, 43% of respondents had heard about it, while the number was 25% in April. The people that were polled didn’t think that the manifestations of cancel culture had increased over that period. In December, 42% of Russians noticed such occurrences (compared with 39% in April). Another 43% said they didn’t notice anything like that (compared with 47% in April).

The all-Russian telephone survey, which was commissioned by the Expert Institute of Social Research, was conducted on December 21. It included 1,600 Russians over the age of 18. The data are weighted by socio-demographic parameters. The margin of error with a probability of 95% does not exceed 2.5%.

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