Hey, your resident lemmy.ml russian (but also in exile lol) here

Judging by my friends and family, I feel like vaguely liberal views are still somewhat popular in major cities, mostly because people kind of enjoy berger and cola and internet, and associate all those things with liberalism. It did take a big hit because of how the West reacted to the war, hurting many regular Russians, but it’s still present.

But there can be no such thing as left-liberal opposition in Russia, period. The oligarchs and their socially conservative, reactionary viewpoints dominate all aspects of public life. LGBT propaganda (like holding hands with a same-sex partner in public), blasphemy (like taking a funny photo with a church in frame), and denigration of armed forces (calling the ongoing conflict “a war”) are punished by real prison terms. What do you think happens when someone poses a real political threat to those in power?

Pro-capitalist (right-liberal) views meanwhile are encouraged for obvious reasons.

Sadly this all means that there can be no serious communist or socialist opposition either. CPRF is a hollowed out shell of its former self (even of 20 years ago), its only purpose is to put a hammer&sickle rubber stamp on oligarch agenda of today (think: Democrats in the US but with much less power and a communist aesthetic). Communists of Russia seem vaguely promising but never make any real progress when (very rarely) elected (think: DSA). Anarchist movements are disorganised and often infiltrated by FSB, for the organisers to be promptly put on trial for random bullshit.

I hope China can push a more communist agenda on Russia in the future, but it’s not looking good for now