‘Do you think Putin is doing a good job?’

A state-linked pollster is asking Russian university students to share their views on the war, politics, and sex

“What do you plan to do after graduation?” A screenshot of this multiple-choice question presented to Russian university students in a survey went viral on X in late November. Instructing respondents to select all that apply, the survey offered four possible answers: compulsory military service, enlistment to fight in Ukraine, parental leave, or “other.” As it turns out, this is just one example of a broader wave of questionnaires that students across Russia have been asked to fill out over the past year, on topics ranging from education and mental well-being to politics and reproductive health. Meduza investigates what we know about these university surveys, the controversies they have provoked, and the state-linked pollster behind them.

Meduza granted anonymity to all of the sources interviewed for this article for security reasons. The Kremlin has outlawed Meduza as an “undesirable organization,” which means anyone living in Russia who gives our journalists a comment risks misdemeanor or even criminal charges. To learn more about how to help readers in Russia support Meduza, check out our “Lean on Me” campaign.

Are the kids alright?

Reports about online surveys asking university students about their political views began to emerge shortly after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But it wasn’t until that October that the deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Education, lawmaker Yana Lantarova, made a public appeal to Higher Education Minister Valery Falkov, asking that surveys be conducted in universities to gauge students’ attitudes towards the “special military operation.”

Lantarova cited concerns over media reports “about more than 3,000 opposition-minded students” at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) attempting to “blackmail the university administration” into offering distance learning so that they could leave Russia. She also recalled an incident at Moscow State University, where two students were expelled for “hate and aggression” over an argument with a classmate who had posed outside the journalism faculty building in a T-shirt with the pro-war “Z” symbol.

At this point, university administrators had already been surveying students’ attitudes toward the war for months. As the student publication Groza later revealed, this began in the spring of 2022. The surveys asked students about the reasons for the “special military operation,” their views on “foreign agents,” and their willingness to participate in anti-government strikes. They also included questions about whether students consider Russia a superpower, if they take pride in the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II, whether they’d like to change their citizenship, and their readiness to defend Russia’s constitutional order.

These student surveys attracted renewed attention in late November 2025, when a post with a screenshot of a multiple-choice question went viral on X. It asked, “What do you plan to do after graduation? (Select all options that apply)” and offered four possible answers: compulsory military service, enlistment to fight in the “special military operation,” parental leave, and “other.” A student who completed this survey told Meduza that the other questions were related to employment, job availability, and plans to work in one’s field of study. According to the replies to the viral post, similar questionnaires were sent to students at several universities, including Russian State Vocational-Pedagogical University in Ekaterinburg, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, and People’s Friendship University of Russia in Moscow.

There are at least eight known instances of similar surveys being conducted among students in seven Russian regions in 2025. However, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine was mentioned in only two of the questionnaires. Back in January, students at universities and colleges in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, received a survey on “youth attitudes towards extremism.” Among other things, it asked whether they feared an invasion of the region. (Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August 2024.) The following month, students at Siberian Federal University were asked in a survey if, given the opportunity to go back in time, they would rescind the decision to launch the “special military operation.”

In June, administrators at Kazan Federal University sent students a survey purportedly meant to assess the “psychological safety” of the campus learning environment. Among other questions, it asked whether students suffered from constipation and what patriotic youth organizations they were familiar with (the multiple-choice list included the cadet movement Yunarmiya and the federal youth affairs agency, Rosmolodezh, among others). Other universities in Kazan also conducted surveys on psychological well-being earlier this year. However, two students told Meduza that they couldn’t remember whether they included questions about politics.

In mid-November, reports surfaced about another survey asking students in Russia’s Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug about their attitudes towards President Vladimir Putin. According to screenshots published by RFE/RL’s Siberian service, the survey asked: “Do you think President Vladimir Putin is doing a good or bad job in office? Has his work lately been improving, getting worse, or staying the same?” The multiple-choice answers to this question included: “Good and improving,” “Good and not changing,” “Good but getting worse,” “Bad but improving,” and “Bad and not changing.” A student also told RFE/RL that this particular survey was not anonymous.

According to media reports, other surveys have focused on various aspects of state ideology. Students at Perm State University and HSE St. Petersburg were asked to fill out questionnaires on “young people’s perception of radical ideas.” Both surveys included a multiple-choice question about which social groups evoke “negative emotions,” listing feminists, atheists, ultra-patriots, and illegal migrants as possible responses. A student from HSE St. Petersburg told Meduza that the rest of the survey contained “neutral” questions, asking, for example, about respondents’ mental health.

Administrators at HSE St. Petersburg also sent students a survey on “family values and parental attitudes,” which posed questions about what social benefits would motivate them to get married, how many children they want, and who is the “head” of a family. At the same time, several students from HSE’s Moscow campus told Meduza that they did not receive similar questionnaires.

Also in November, a survey about reproductive health provoked a scandal at Voronezh State University. The questionnaire, which was not anonymous, asked students about the age at which they became sexually active, their experiences with childbirth and sexually transmitted diseases, and their use of contraceptives. Students complained to local journalists about the overly personal questions and the fact that the survey was not anonymous. Russian lawmaker Ksenia Goryacheva then publicly criticized the survey’s methods, arguing that it violated students’ privacy. In response, local health officials stated that the university conducted the study on its own initiative and that participation in surveys is “always voluntary.” In turn, spokespeople for Voronezh State University claimed that the survey’s distribution had not been coordinated with the administration.

The Concerned Citizen

Screenshots published by Groza reveal that the pollster behind the student surveys is the research and communications platform Neravnodushny Chelovek (“The Concerned Person”) — a joint project launched by the Education and Science Ministry, Tomsk State University, and the state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) in April 2023.

The project’s domain is registered to a company called Neravnodushny Grazhdanin (“The Concerned Citizen”), which is owned by a Moscow resident named Tatyana Leshchina. In 2025, the company was awarded a state contract worth 1.6 million rubles (about $20,000) for the “provision of expert, analytical, and consulting services” from the Zelenaya Dolina sanatorium in Krasnodar, a facility for employees of Russia’s Federal Bailiff Service. However, Meduza was unable to find any state contracts linked to student surveys or the Education Ministry.

According to the Education Ministry’s initial press release, Neravnodushny Chelovek was supposed to conduct surveys aimed at identifying “promising areas for the development of higher education” until the end of 2023. However, based on media reports citing university students, Neravnodushny Chelovek is still polling students. Moreover, more than 450 universities share data with the platform — almost half of all higher education institutions in Russia.

On its website, Neravnodushny Chelovek is described as a “feedback mechanism between the university community and government agencies,” with the stated goal of gathering information on students’ opinions about the quality of education, their media consumption, their “social and psychological well-being,” and “other topics.” The platform also runs a student-focused Telegram channel, which mixes lifestyle content — like Gen Z movie recommendations and “life hacks” for freshmen — with news about higher education.

Among its strategic partners, Neravnodushny Chelovek lists Drugoye Delo — a mini app within the social network VKontakte that offers webinars for teenagers on topics like ecology, culture, and volunteering. Participants are awarded points for completing the webinars, which can then be redeemed for travel around Russia, meet-and-greets with celebrities, and internships at “top companies” (like the broadcaster STS Media, the petrochemicals company Sibur, and the housing developer PIK Group). The owner of Drugoye Delo, Russia — Land of Opportunity, is a Kremlin-controlled non-profit created at Putin’s own initiative to oversee ideological projects, such as organizing academic competitions for students in both Russia and the occupied territories of Ukraine.

As Meduza reported previously, leaked documents revealed that Putin’s administration intended for around 20 percent of people ages 14–25 in the occupied territories to participate in Russia — Land of Opportunity events from 2023 to 2025. (The exact number of people currently living in these territories is unknown.)

Getting personal (data)

To complete Neravnodushny Chelovek’s surveys, respondents have to register through another one of its partners — VKontakte. The platform’s website states that personal data is required for registration, but that the survey results recorded in Neravnodushny Chelovek’s database are anonymized. Other questionnaires also asked respondents to register using a VKontakte account or an email address.

Back in 2023, Groza reported that students doubted Neravnodushny Chelovek would respect their anonymity. And in a June 2025 interview, an educational psychologist at a Russian college told Groza that while student surveys are officially meant “to help create a safe educational environment,” the authorities actually use the results to identify “risk groups” prone to “anti-social behavior” — including students who don’t conform to state ideology. “An educational psychologist in a school today […] is, to put it bluntly, a snitch,” the source explained. “They should be a resource for students, providing psychological and moral support. But instead, they just sell them out.”

According to the educational psychologist, his college maintains internal records of students who fall into “risk groups,” and administrators are obliged to share this information with the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB) upon request. “We’re subject to a lot of inspections,” he said. “I recently had five checks by the FSB and two by the prosecutor’s offices. On certain dates, Interior Ministry officers also check the personal files of students registered [at the school].” (Groza did not provide any other information to corroborate these claims.)

In an earlier interview with Groza, Levada Center sociologist Stepan Goncharov explained that Russian government surveys are designed to obtain a cross-section of public opinion, but pay particular attention to young people because this demographic has become noticeably more opposition-leaning since 2018–2019. In his view, this has made young people the “most sensitive issue” for the Russian authorities. At the same time, he noted that young people are wary of surveys on attitudes towards the government commissioned by the state itself.

All of the students Meduza interviewed for this story said that neither they nor their classmates take these surveys seriously. An instructor and a student at HSE St. Petersburg told Meduza that they believe many students simply ignore the questionnaires. And historian Dmitry Dubrovsky, a former associate professor in the Public Policy Department at HSE, speculated that most students who complete these surveys don’t answer the questions honestly.

The instructor and student also surmised that many university administrators, including those at HSE St. Petersburg, treat conducting surveys as a bureaucratic necessity. In turn, Dubrovsky suggested that university administrators need these surveys not to spy on students or gather statistics for internal use, but as evidence for the authorities that they’re effectively implementing government youth policies.

Story by Timur Khayrutdinov