“This situation must be resolved somehow,” she said, echoing Natalia’s vague assertion about Ukraine. But even as she was annoyed about the way the local authorities managed the mobilization of her son, she expressed faith in Mr. Putin.
“Our president is quite wise, and he is still doing a good job,” she said.
Repeating a common theme
pushed by propaganda programs on state TV and among many ordinary people, she said she believed “the West” was not only fighting in Ukraine, but also suffering the consequences of the war worse than Russia was.
“People don’t have anything there,” she said of the West. “Go to our stores, we have everything. This doesn’t affect us in any way,” she said, though she acknowledged that prices had risen slightly.