Public attitude to the riots in Moscow during the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Abstract

The article briefly examines the history of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and the prerequisites for the riots that took place in Moscow in July 2020. The paper presents the results of an anonymous sociological survey conducted immediately after the events in question in two regions of the Russian Federation (Moscow and the Voronezh Region). These regions were chosen based on the fact that one of them is directly the place of events (the city of Moscow), and the second is part of the Central Federal District (CFD) (Voronezh Region). The data obtained in the two regions do not differ dramatically. The purpose of the article is to identify the attitude of the Russian population to the riots that occurred on a national basis in Moscow, as well as how the population of various regions of Russia paid attention to the true cause of the riots. The survey showed that the majority of interviewees knew about the riots, but from 18% to 37% of respondents could not name the true cause of the riots. The development of further mass riots on the territory of Russia as a result of the aggravation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was avoided thanks to the prompt intervention of the power structures of the Russian Federation and the holding of meetings of representatives of power structures with official representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as with the leadership of the Azerbaijani and Armenian diasporas in Russia.