In one of his videos, Daniil (not the interviewer in this video but the interviewer who started this channel) spoke about how it was getting harder to find people who wanted to speak on camera and even when they did find someone they would often get in touch to ask about taking the video down. The inference was they probably got a visit or call from local police or some other pressure to not be on camera.
In comparison to some of Daniil’s later videos filled with folks repeating Russian media talking point (another reason Daniil gave up on street interviews) this video seems quite refreshing. Hope they are able to continue making more.
It’s why you cannot trust polls and the likes in authoritarian states. Even outside of state manipulation of numbers, when people are afraid to actually speak their mind, then it completely invalidates any sort of results you would get from it. If I was living in Russia and some random person, be it on the street, at my door, or over the phone, would ask me my opinion on the war or Putin, you’d sure bet your ass I’d sugarcoat it in a pro Russian way, or at the very least try to avoid speaking to said person at the bare minimum.
And yes, people who said something against the regime on his channel got in trouble before. So Russia is very much aware of his channel and monitoring it, or at least have people watch it and report people they see there.
In one of his videos, Daniil (not the interviewer in this video but the interviewer who started this channel) spoke about how it was getting harder to find people who wanted to speak on camera and even when they did find someone they would often get in touch to ask about taking the video down. The inference was they probably got a visit or call from local police or some other pressure to not be on camera.
In comparison to some of Daniil’s later videos filled with folks repeating Russian media talking point (another reason Daniil gave up on street interviews) this video seems quite refreshing. Hope they are able to continue making more.
It’s why you cannot trust polls and the likes in authoritarian states. Even outside of state manipulation of numbers, when people are afraid to actually speak their mind, then it completely invalidates any sort of results you would get from it. If I was living in Russia and some random person, be it on the street, at my door, or over the phone, would ask me my opinion on the war or Putin, you’d sure bet your ass I’d sugarcoat it in a pro Russian way, or at the very least try to avoid speaking to said person at the bare minimum.
And yes, people who said something against the regime on his channel got in trouble before. So Russia is very much aware of his channel and monitoring it, or at least have people watch it and report people they see there.