Russia should recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") and "Luhansk People's Republic" ("LPR") or "not to interfere and remain neutral". It is the opinion of the majority of Russians interviewed by Russian Public Opinion Research Center (RPORC), - reportsKommersant.
"On the background of the ongoing economic crisis and confrontation with the West, a growing number of respondents were in favour of neutrality," - explains the general director of RPORC Valeriy Fedorov.
According to him, "the attention of the Russians to this region is predictably decreasing: the smaller amount of military actions there is, the less news flow is, the less emotions people express on this occasion." But the " Russians’ basic settings, formed in the spring and summer of 2014, remain the same," stressed the head of the RPORC.
For example, the idea of including Donbass in the Russian Federation as in the Crimean scenario has never been dominant in Russian society, only in the spring of 2014 18% percent considered it to be acceptable, now only 14% think so. But the "idea of reintegrating Donbass in Ukraine" has been always attractive (2-3%), emphasizes Fedorov.
The number of supporters to continue large-scale humanitarian aid to the "DPR" and "LPR" decreases. If in January 2015 78% of Russians believed that humanitarian convoys with food and medicines "should be" sent to Donbass, now only 64% think so. Conversely, one and a half years ago 15% of respondents believed that the convoys "shouldn’t be" sent there, now 27% of respondents consider so.
"Routinisation of the conflict in the east of Ukraine takes it out of the focus of attention of Russians and reduces their willingness to sacrifice something essential in order to help Donbass,"- says the director of the RPORC.
"Two years ago events in Donbass were perceived as a victory of good over evil, they aré now perceived as a source of the pain in the neck," - said president of the Petersburg Politics Fund Mikhail Vinogradov on the change in the society.
"In addition, settlement of the refugees from the territories of Ukraine in Russia led to a backlash," - said chairman of the board of the Center for Political Technologies Boris Makarenko. Negative, according to him, appeared when residents of the Russian regions got to know that refugees from Donbass "receive an allowance higher not only than the unemployment allowance in Russia, but sometimes even than the average salary in a remote Russian province."