Theses and Dissertations

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1887-4238

Advisor

Porter, Bennett

Committee Member

DeShong, Hilary

Committee Member

McKinney, Cliff

Committee Member

Stubbs-Richardson, Megan

Committee Member

Hardwick, Clay

Date of Degree

12-12-2025

Original embargo terms

Visible MSU Only 2 Years

Document Type

Dissertation - Campus Access Only

Major

Applied Psychology (Clinical Psychology)

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Psychology

Abstract

Ascertaining the attitudes of Russian citizens towards the war in Ukraine is a difficult task. Russian state polling and media commentary paint a picture of majority support, but the reliability of these sources is dubious at best. This study sought to provide an additional piece to the puzzle by examining online posts made on popular Russian social media platforms. Specifically, this study examined Russian-language posts made on VKontatke and Telegram which pertained to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Whereas VKontakte is under tight Kremlin monitoring, Telegram is a much more independent platform. Collecting and testing from these sources allows for a more thorough analysis by utilizing two distinctly different social media environments. Posts were collected from the first day of the invasion until the decree of partial mobilization in Russia in September 2022. Previous research found an increase in negative sentiment on Russian social media during this timeframe. This study first sought to validate this finding with a new language processing platform, Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 22. Next, this study worked to contextualize this trend in negative sentiment by examining trends in negative emotion and extreme speech over time. Robust regression was completed on the overall collection of posts, then a moderated regression was completed to test if social media platform played a significant role in these trends. Overall, this study found a significant increase in negative sentiment, negative emotion, and extreme speech over time. Further, social media platform had a significant moderating effect on negative sentiment but not negative emotion or extreme speech. Overall, these results indicate growing frustration among Russian social media users, with users on both Kremlin-affiliated and independent platforms mostly showing similar trends. The exact target of this frustration is unknown and unlikely to be unanimous across all users. Regardless of the exact nature of their dissatisfaction, this study demonstrates the Kremlin’s optimistic narrative of the war did not take hold among Russian social media users during the onset of the war.

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