Nearly one in four Russian citizens would report a neighbour for criticising the country’s armed forces, according to a new survey conducted by the government-aligned Public Opinion Foundation, in what could signal a revival of Soviet-era practices of public denunciation.

The nationwide poll, published in March, found that 24% of respondents would inform authorities if someone expressed negative views about Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. An additional 14% stated they would report individuals who criticised President Vladimir Putin.

While not a majority, the findings indicate a substantial segment of the population supports reporting fellow citizens over expressions of political dissent. The data point to a shrinking tolerance for dissenting opinions, with political speech increasingly viewed as grounds for surveillance and reprisal.

By contrast, far more respondents expressed willingness to report traditional criminal activity. Seventy-seven per cent said they would report a violent street altercation, 75% would report vandalism and 65% would inform authorities of domestic violence involving neighbours.

These findings echo the results of a separate 2024 study by the independent Levada Centre. That survey revealed stark generational divides in attitudes towards political informing. Among Russians aged over 40, 80% held a negative view of denouncing neighbours, whereas only 55% of respondents aged 18 to 24 shared that sentiment. The generational gap may reflect differing historical experiences, with younger Russians lacking direct memory of the Soviet Union, where mass arrests and executions followed anonymous denunciations.

The younger demographic also displayed greater indifference. Of those aged 18 to 24, 37% expressed a neutral stance towards political informing, more than double the proportion among older groups. Only 25% of this age group viewed the practice in strongly negative terms.

Writing in Novaya Gazeta in 2024, Alexey Levinson, head of Sociocultural Research at the Levada Centre, noted a cultural shift in which informing is no longer widely condemned. 

“The most tolerant group is 18- to 24-year-old, those who’ve lived entirely under Putin. For them, informing doesn’t seem like a grave sin,” he wrote. “This suggests a steady erosion of the cultural norm that snitching is wrong.”