How do Russians genuinely feel about their President? Of his regime? Of his war? Vladimir Putin has ensured it’s very hard to tell.

Citizens can be jailed for up to 15 years for calling his “special military operation” what it actually is: an invasion. Leading political opponents have been poisoned, exiled or assassinated . Few independent journalists remain in the country. And when opinion polls are carried out, they suggest most Russians approve of their government.

That was what drove Jana Bakunina to travel back to the country where she was born and grew up but hasn’t lived for a quarter of a century. “We don’t really hear what ordinary people think,” she says. “What is it that, in their heart of hearts, is driving them to support the regime?” New Feature

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