Over 70 percent of Russians support anti-ISIS airstrikes in Syria
More than 70 percent of Russian citizens have expressed their support for the country’s airstrikes in crisis-hit Syria, a new poll finds.
The poll was conducted on 1,600 people by independent Russian pollster Levada Center in early October.
According to the survey, 72 percent of the respondents backed their country’s airstrikes on the positions of terrorist groups, 14 percent said they opposed the raids, and the same share of people said they had no opinion about the issue.
Moreover, 47 percent of the participants said Russia should support Syria’s legitimate President Bashar al-Assad in the fight against Takfiri terrorist groups, while 28 percent believed that Moscow should stay out of the conflict.
Also, only eight percent of those surveyed said Russia should join the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh, while 17 percent did not have a clear opinion in this regard.
Russia launched its airstrikes against Takfiri terrorists in Syria upon a request by Damascus on September 30, hours after the upper house of the Russian parliament gave President Vladimir Putin the mandate to use the air force in the Arab country.
Since September 2014, the US along with some of its allies has allegedly been conducting airstrikes against Daesh extremists inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. The airstrikes in Syria are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against alleged Daesh positions in Iraq, which started in August 2014. Many have criticized the ineffectiveness of the coalition raids.
The Daesh terror group, with members from several Western countries, has been committing heinous acts of terror and atrocities against people of different religious and ethnic communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians, in Syria, Iraq, and other countries.
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