Vladimir Putin justifies the invasion of Ukraine as a need to protect Russian-speaking minorities whose rights are being brutally violated by Ukrainian authorities. The Kremlin’s rhetoric here quite consciously follows the so-called doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P), a postulate about the possibility of interfering in the affairs of other countries if their states cannot protect their populations from genocide, enshrined in UN documents in the 2010s.

The business activity index in the services sector rose in April to 44.5 points instead of 38.1 in March, in the manufacturing industry - to 48.2 instead of 44.1, show seasonally adjusted PMI Index data from S&P . Index values ​​remaining below 50 points indicate continued concern among entrepreneurs about the prospects for the Russian economy.

The behavior of respondents during public opinion polls has changed significantly since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and continues to change, according to focus groups with street and telephone survey interviewers conducted by Russian Field, which previously published data on a sharp increase in respondents’ refusals to participate in surveys on the topic of war.

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The share of such sentences in the total number is growing from year to year - probably because it is easier for the police and bailiffs to ensure a flow of criminal cases that are easy to process and “reliable” in the courts, writes crime sociologist Ekaterina Khodzhaeva, based on an analysis of recent judicial statistics from the Supreme Court .

This year, a sharp increase in oil and gas prices will provide the governments of countries producing hydrocarbons, record revenues - about $ 2.5 trillion, the Rystad Energy consulting company predicts . This is significantly higher than the previous maximum of $ 2.1 trillion reached in 2011. Russia, despite the decrease in oil production, will receive more than $ 180 billion tax revenues from its export, which is 45% higher than the level of 2021, and about $ 80 billion from gas exports.

Before the start of the war, the median level of approval of the Russian leadership in 116 countries surveyed by Gallup was 33% (the survey was conducted in April 2021 - January 2022). The global level of support for the US and Germany is noticeably higher - 45–50%. Approval of the activities of the Russian leadership fell to a minimum (22%) after the annexation of Crimea in 2014; it reached a maximum (34%) in 2020.