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Why People Love Russia Despite Internet Censorship

Why Russians stay patriotic despite fears of falling behind and rising internet censorship. Explains Levada polls, the 'sovereign Runet' law, and implications.

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Patriots: Why do you love Россия despite concerns that the country is falling behind and may introduce severe internet restrictions that some fear could make it resemble северная корея?

People love Россия because patriotism (патриотизм) is rooted in culture, family and shared history—feelings that persist even when many worry about the economy or rising интернет цензура. The 2019 “суверенный Рунет” law and a wave of blocks, throttling and new Roskomnadzor powers have raised real concerns, but polls show attachment to country often sits alongside unease about restrictions. Below I explain why pride endures, what the laws and data actually show, and how Russia’s situation compares to Северная Корея.

Contents

Patriotism in Россия

Patriotism in Russia is more than approval of current rulers; it’s an emotional map people carry—family stories, regional pride, literature, music, and public rituals. You can lose faith in one government and still feel loyalty to a place where your grandparents lived, where your language and holidays bind you to others. That distinction helps explain why патриотизм persists even when people worry their country is “falling behind” technologically or economically.

Modern Russian patriotism mixes civic and cultural threads. Some express pride in Russia’s scientific achievements, literature and endurance through hard times. Others anchor love for Russia in the idea of national sovereignty and dignity. This isn’t unique to Russia; nations with complicated politics often have large majorities who identify strongly with the country while criticizing policies or leadership.

Public opinion & Levada polls

Polls make that split visible. Independent polling by Levada (the largest independent polling center in Russia) and coverage of its results show mixed attitudes: a sizable share of people want normalization with the West even while many express attachment to country-level identity. See the Levada overview for context and recent reporting on the numbers. The Krym.Reports summary, for example, noted specific survey findings where majorities expressed worry about sending relatives to fight, while other items showed ongoing national attachment. The broad point: patriotism and policy disagreement often coexist rather than cancel each other out.

Public-opinion snapshots matter, but so does nuance. Poll wording, timing and political context affect responses. Still, the consistent finding across multiple polls is a layered view: people can be proud of national culture or history, want better relations with other countries, and also fear restrictions on speech or access to information.

Roots of patriotism: history, identity and daily life

Why hold on to patriotic feeling in hard times? A few reasons:

  • Emotional continuity: Family narratives (wartime memory, migration stories) create deep bonds. Those bonds don’t vanish when leaders change.
  • Cultural pride: Literature, film, music and sports give people reasons to feel proud—some of them independent of politics.
  • Social networks and place: Local institutions—schools, workplaces, churches—anchor identity. People defend what feels like “home.”
  • Survival narratives: Collective memory of surviving past shocks reinforces the idea that the nation endures.
  • Civic rituals: Holidays like Victory Day or local commemorations reaffirm belonging.

So yes: even if the economy lags or institutions are strained, these social and cultural forces keep patriotic sentiment alive. The word-search interest in патриотизм (noted in Yandex Wordstat during background research) shows active public engagement with the idea itself—people search for its meaning, examples, and how to teach it.

Internet censorship and the “sovereign Runet”

The legal and technical tools that worry people are real. The 2019 law on the so-called “суверенный Интернет” created frameworks to route traffic domestically and to compel operators to install equipment for centralized control. For an overview see the Russian-language summary of the law. Independent reports and government-watch groups document waves of blocking and other restrictions: by some counts tens of thousands of URLs have been blocked since 2022, and authorities have used censorship laws to remove or slow access to content deemed illegal or discrediting to the armed forces.

Key factual points drawn from public reports:

  • The law enables state authorities to direct traffic, institute white lists, and coordinate responses to perceived threats to connectivity. See the law summary for legal text and background.
  • Monitoring and intervention rules for Roskomnadzor have been clarified over time, expanding the situations in which centralized measures can be applied; business reporting provides detail about those regulatory updates.
  • International and NGO reporting documents large numbers of blocked pages and targeted takedowns; the U.S. State Department report and compilations of blocked URLs show the scale and the types of content affected.
  • Technical reporting and investigative pieces describe tests, white-listing and instances where large platforms (for example, portions of YouTube) were slowed or partially blocked during enforcement actions.

Put simply: the state now has broader legal and technical options to restrict online content, and those options have been used in ways that affect access for both users and platforms.

(For law text and regulatory detail see the law summary and recent coverage in national tech press; for blocked-site figures see the State Department report and the English Wikipedia overview of internet censorship in Russia.)

Is Russia becoming like Северная Корея online?

That comparison is powerful but misleading in important ways. North Korea operates a near-total information blockade: ordinary citizens typically have no access to the global Internet and rely on a closed domestic intranet with heavy content controls. The contrast with Russia is stark.

Practical differences:

  • Scale and complexity: Russia’s economy, telecom market and private-sector infrastructure are tightly integrated with the global Internet. Disconnecting or sealing the whole country would cause severe economic fallout and require extensive technical work and cooperation from many private operators. Public summaries of internet structure note that absolute isolation is complex and costly.
  • Legal vs. practical: Russia’s laws empower authorities to restrict access and route traffic domestically, but the actual implementations so far look like targeted blocking, throttling and white lists rather than a universal cut-off. Technical reports describe tests and localized throttling rather than a wholesale shutdown.
  • Everyday access: For most users today, daily access to global services continues, even if particular platforms or sites are intermittently slowed or blocked.

In short: the tools exist to make parts of the online environment more controlled; making Russia into a full analogue of North Korea’s sealed internet would be a much bigger step with wide economic and social costs. That doesn’t erase the danger—targeted repression, reduced media pluralism, and constrained research and business activity are already real concerns.

(For how North Korea’s network is structured and why comparisons fall short, see an explanatory piece on North Korea’s internet.)

Practical implications for citizens and businesses

What does this mean for people who love Russia but fear restrictions?

  • Stay informed from multiple sources. Compare independent polls and reporting to understand both national mood and concrete policy moves. (Levada and international reporting are good references.)
  • Expect selective, targeted restrictions first. The most likely near-term outcomes are expanded monitoring, more takedowns, white lists and occasional throttling of major platforms during enforcement windows. That’s disruptive but different from a permanent total cut.
  • For businesses: continuity planning matters. Companies that rely on global platforms should model partial outages, work with multiple providers and maintain offline backups for critical functions. Reporting from tech press shows how throttling or regulatory interventions have affected platform performance.
  • For citizens: digital literacy helps. Know official channels, independent media mirrors, and legal risks—especially since some measures (including use of certain circumvention tools) may be constrained by law. Don’t assume a single solution; diversify how you access news and data.
  • Civic space: support for civil society, archival work and decentralized publishing can mitigate long-term damage to information ecosystems—but that’s a societal effort, not an individual quick fix.

Above all, the picture is mixed: restrictions can and do rise, but social and economic realities create limits on how far and how fast a complete shutdown can happen.

Sources

Conclusion

Россия inspires loyalty because patriotism (патриотизм) is rooted in shared memory, culture and daily life—attachments that survive political disagreement and worries about falling behind. Real risks from expanded интернет цензура and the “суверенный Рунет” law exist; authorities have the tools to restrict and have used them selectively. But technical, economic and social realities make a total North Korea–style shutdown unlikely in the near term. Love for country and concern about its direction can, and often do, live together; staying informed, pragmatic and engaged is how citizens navigate that tension.

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Why People Love Russia Despite Internet Censorship