Opinion polls from dictatorships during war cannot be trusted because respondents fear FSB agents are conducting the survey; under dictatorship, only about 2 in 10 respondents answer surveys, and those who do answer may be lying out of fear.
factualpending
Speaker
Mikhail KhodorkovskyEvidence Quote
“well first of all I wouldn't really believe all the opinion polls we hear about in their results a lot of sociologists have to told me that the results of a sociological survey under a dictatorship during a war are not really a witness or a testimony of anything because yes one of those sociologists actually present here... in a normal situation out of 10 people being surveyed two would give answers would actually respond... and now imagine that you are living in a dictatorship and there is war going on somebody approaches you in the street and says are you pro-war or against it well one choice you have is just not to reply”
Source
How The West Can Stop Putin, with Exiled Critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky | Intelligence Squared— Intelligence SquaredCreated: 8/10/2026, 10:56:34 PM
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