http://www.forbes.com/sites/markadom...ops-to-crimea/
Nonetheless, the initial evidence shows that Putin’s decision (which, for the record, I regard as a catastrophic blunder) to use military force has actually been popular among Russians. A new poll by VTsIOM, a state-run institution that nonetheless remains one of the most widely respected polling outfits in Russia, shows that Putin’s approval is higher than it’s been since the middle of 2012. Please note that the March numbers were gathered after Russian forces had already moved into Crimea, so if there was going to be some sort of immediate reaction against the move it should have already appeared in the data.



Putin is ultimately playing to a domestic audience, and he doesn’t much care whether he’s liked in Brussels or Washington if the Russian public is generally supportive of his actions. So far the indications are that the invasion of Crimea, however primitive and bone-headed it might appear to a Western audience, is viewed very differently in Russia. There are many reasons why this is the case — the slanted coverage of the main state-run television stations surely plays some role — but why Russians view Ukraine differently than Westerners is a lot less important than the fact that they do. So if you were expecting the use of military force to immediately rebound on Putin, and if you were expecting Russians to flock en-masse to the opposition, you’re going to be disappointed.

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hmm :mmmm: a small island and increasing approval ratings, this is very similar to a story happened in a western country