As Interfax reports, Russians approve of Ukraine policy, but want more focus on domestic issues:
Forty-four percent of Russian citizens recently interviewed by the Levada Center have approved of the Russian leadership's policy towards Ukraine, but believe that domestic issues have priority over geopolitical interests, the center's sociologists told Interfax.
The survey was conducted in 46 Russian regions on October 24-27 and involved 1,600 people.
Eighteen percent of those polled said the policies pursued by the Russian leadership make them feel proud of their country, 16% said they are not interested in the current events, 12% said they feel anxiety and fear, 10% said they feel justice has prevailed as a result of Russia's policy, and 4% of respondents expressed joy.
Six percent of respondents criticized Moscow's policy towards the conflict in southeastern Ukraine, and 3% spoke of their outrage, shame or despair.
Forty-six percent of those polled believe that the main goal of Russia's foreign policy in relation to Ukraine is to defend Russian military, strategic and geopolitical interests, 43% suggested that the Russian authorities seek to protect the ethnic Russian population in Ukraine's southeastern regions from "Ukrainian nationalists", 31% of respondents believe that the Russian authorities seek to prevent the situation in the country from following a Ukrainian-style scenario, 29% said that Russia is defending its own economic interests and seeks to stop Ukraine's integration into Europe, and 28% of those polled believe that the Russian authorities want to prevent "people's rebellion against the corrupt regime."
Seventy percent of respondents said that Russia is not responsible for the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine, and 20% took the opposite view. Eight percent of those polled said they feel "personal responsibility" for the people dying in Ukraine's southeastern regions.
At the same time, 50% of respondents called on the Russian authorities to focus on tackling social and economic problems facing the country, 36% gave priority to the country's geopolitical and strategic interests, and 14% of those polled were unable to answer the question.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents to the survey believe that Russian representatives should take part in negotiations with the Kyiv authorities together with the leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Sixty percent of those polled said that Russian officials should be invited to such talks.
The idea that observing the current ceasefire is crucial to ending the violence in Ukraine was supported by 34% of respondents, and 56% expressed the opposite opinion.
Thirty-eight percent of those polled believe that residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions want peace, not independence, 35% took the opposite view, and 27% were undecided.
Former military commander of pro-Russian separatists calls project a failure:
AFP is reporting that Ukraine takes another step toward a "frozen" conflict in the east:
Ukraine announced Thursday that anyone crossing in or out of areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country will have to show a passport.
The rule, announced by the border guards service, was aimed at sealing off the separatist region in what will de facto become an internal border in the seven-month conflict.
Ukrainian citizens will be allowed to travel in and out of the area "on condition of showing passports," the border guards service said in a statement.
Foreigners will "be sent to filtration points to determine the purpose of their visit" and will have "to show a passport or the required visa," the statement said.
Officials said the passport regime will apply to the area of what the government calls the "anti-terrorist operation," but did not specify the exact outlines of the area. The rule appeared to signal the creation of an increasingly formal border between the Russian-backed separatist zone and the rest of Ukraine.