Russians want Putin to end the fighting

War fatigue is growing in both the elite, and society more broadly

Welcome to Vlast! This week, we take a close look at the mood inside Russia. Our sources in Moscow told us that Ukraine war fatigue is increasing among the Russian elite—and we got access to secret polling suggesting the Russian public also wants a ceasefire.

We also look briefly at gasoline shortages caused by Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries, the passing of urgent legislation to prevent a budget crisis, and the founding congress of the first political party to be set up by Russian émigrés.

⏳ This newsletter contains 1,389 words and will take approximately 8 minutes to read. It was translated and edited by Howard Amos.

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‘Everyone is tired of the war’

The mood in Russia has turned against the conflict in Ukraine in recent months amid a stalemate at the front and Kyiv’s increasingly successful drone attacks, according to our sources in Moscow. Secret polling commissioned by Russian officials and shared with Vlast indicates more and more Russians want a ceasefire.

“Everyone is tired of the war,” a top government official said of the elite. “Nothing is happening. Everything seems to be stuck in some kind of jelly, going neither forward nor backward. Our advances are being more than offset by [Ukrainian] drone strikes.”

There is no single reason for this fatigue, but it seems to have been fueled by economic difficulties, the failure of negotiations with Washington, intensifying wartime repressions, a lack of progress at the front, and fears about mobilization. Perhaps most dramatically, Ukrainian attacks on Russian cities have been increasingly successful, with the biggest-ever strike on Moscow on Thursday setting ablaze an oil refinery.

There have been several signals from the Russian elite that they want an end to the conflict.