Public opinion polling in Russia has faced growing scrutiny since the war began, prompting new debates about its accuracy, relevance, and the shifting sentiments it seeks to capture. The criticism of opinion polls in Russia focuses on two main sources of error. Firstly, the sampling biases - "We're interviewing the wrong people." Secondly, the use of irrelevant tools - "we're asking the wrong way." We will analyze the ways used to overcome these mistakes and the results achieved during the implementation of surveys conducted by various polsters. Another topic of the presentation will be the self-assessment of everyday life of Russians and its dynamics in various periods after the outbreak of the war. In different periods, different social groups felt like winners and losers.

Speaker

Dr. Vladimir Zvonovsky is a sociologist with over three decades of experience in applied social research across Russia. He earned his phd degree from Samara Aviation Institute in 1989 and completed his postgraduate studies at the Sociological Institute in St. Petersburg in 1997. Since 1993, he has worked at the Social Research Institute, and from 2012 to 2023, he served as Head of the Department of Sociology at Samara State University of Economics. Dr. Zvonovsky specializes in sociological research methodology and has conducted extensive qualitative studies on the social and economic development of urban and regional areas throughout the Russian Federation. His fieldwork spans diverse respondent groups, including government and municipal officials, entrepreneurs, senior and middle managers, consumers, voters, and subject-matter experts.