Russia’s Federal Protective Service (FSO) uses secret opinion polling and automated monitoring of social media to assess public sentiment and provide reports directly to the country’s leadership, according to an investigation cited by Militarnyi on Sunday. The report, originally published by independent Russian outlet Verstka, said the FSO maintains a closed sociological division responsible for conducting confidential public opinion surveys for President Vladimir Putin and other senior officials.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Secret polling supplements official statistics According to the report, the FSO carries out around 500 sociological studies annually across Russia, with a combined sample of more than 400,000 respondents. The findings are reportedly used alongside official public statistics and help inform major political decisions. The scale of the program significantly exceeds that of most civilian polling organizations, which typically survey only several thousand respondents at a time. Automated monitoring of social networks The report also said the FSO has monitored social media platforms using automated systems since 2014. Analysts reportedly track publicly available information, including open Telegram channels, public chats and user comments, to identify shifts in political and social sentiment. According to the investigation, the service relies on open-source intelligence methods and focuses on measuring public attitudes rather than conducting criminal investigations.