Maxim Kiselyov, a Russian social psychologist, Doctor of social psychology at RUDN, explains a similar correlation between the willingness or unwillingness of people to be vaccinated and their support or disapproval of foreign policy events by the fact that the first of them are internally ready to take risks and rush headlong into the unknown if such actions are initiated or approved by the authorities.
These people, he told our observer, for the most part do not question what is being said from TV screens, and completely "delegate responsibility" for the consequences of certain decisions to the state. At the same time, their opponents are guided by diametrically opposite approaches.
Since this kind of consciousness is characterized by the perception of the state as the main "secret force", the carriers of this consciousness are by default critical of everything that the state approves or initiates. Anti-vaccinators (in the broad sense of the word) do not even need to delve into the content of certain initiatives. For them, the very fact that the authorities are in favor is enough to oppose on a reflex level.
"In this case, this mechanism works: since the tough stance towards Russia comes from their own governments, these people automatically move to the pro-Russian camp. Few of them delve into the essence of what is happening in Ukraine; to determine their position, it is enough for them to know what position the official authorities of the countries take and broadcast it with the opposite sign," the scientist explains.
Interesting. I can't find any basis for Maxim Kiselyov's interpretation of these poll results, quite possibly they are simply speculation. Maybe he spoke to some of the participants but I don't see where. While they might describe some (even many) people, they don't match my experiences at all. I would say that the people I know who are distrustful of the authorities are very able to articulate how they came to that conclusion. They don't distrust them because they are authorities, they distrust them because they are truly awful authorities and have proven this to be the case by their past behaviour. In other words, they are proven liars.
I'd be very surprised to come across somebody who had a pro-Russian stance in a Western country who hadn't in some way 'delved into the essence of what is happening in Ukraine'. I'd be less surprised to find somebody who refused the COVID vaccine who hadn't looked into the pandemic in general, because we are talking about very different things here. Some people just know they don't want to be injected with something weird.