Ukraine has been hindered by years of exploitation, negligence, lack of economic growth, depreciation in currency, and the incapacity to secure funding from public markets. Due to this, Viktor Yanukovych President of Ukraine, pursued closer relations with Russia and the European Union to obtain the capital needed to maintain the Ukrainian economy. The first measure was an association agreement with the European Union, which would deliver Ukraine with reservations to several reforms that would take place in almost all facets of Ukrainian society. Yanukovych initially agreed to the contingencies as reasonable, but in the end revoked on his deal with the E.U. and turned to Russia to sign a treaty that improved gas rates and a multi-billion loan.1 The abandonment of the association agreement started civil unrest among the people of Ukraine, because many wanted to join the E.U. Due to the rising tensions and protests, President Viktor Yanukovych deserted Ukraine and fled to Russia. In light of Yanukovych fleeing, Russia took advantage and sent troops and military equipment into Ukraine.2 Being left in a state of crisis following the February 2014 Ukraine Revolution and the impeachment of Yanukovych, unmarked Russian soldiers steadily took control of Crimea, a Ukrainian territory which Russia then annexed.3 In the past year, Russia has forgone the rules of sovereignty and invaded Ukraine. Many nations around the world see this act by Russia and the Russian President Vladimir Putin as flagrant. However, the people of Russia think differently, since the start of the crisis in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea, President Putin’s popularity has significantly risen. This is a major point of interest, for when Vladimir Putin ran for reelection in 2012, the majority was not in his favor and there were even protests against his reelection in major cities, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg4. Putin’s reaction to these protests and way of boosting popularity with the people was to reform his political agenda from a strong standing point on economic growth to a more Russian imperial revival and nationalism. My hypothesis is that President Putin’s increase in popularity since the start of the Ukrainian crisis is correlated to the censorship and propaganda in the Russian media; a common history of Russia and Ukraine, and a new found sense of nationalism among the Russian people. In this paper I will be discussing events that have happen that can explain the significant increase in popularly for the Russian President Vladimir Putin after the start of the Ukraine crisis. The first section of the paper addresses the censorship and propaganda in Russia. The second section of the paper provides the history of Russia and Ukraine. The last section in the paper deals with how the Russian people have found a sense of nationalism that has been missing for sometime. Censorship and Propaganda Censorship and propaganda within Russia, involving the Ukrainian crisis, has drastically impacted the opinions of the Russian people. The Russian constitution delivers freedom of speech and press, however, government application of law, bureaucratic regulation, and politically motivated criminal investigations have forced the press to exercise self-censorship restricting the coverage of certain controversial issues, resulting in infringements of these rights. 5 The forced self-censorship has led the Russian media to frequently describe the crisis in Ukraine as a product of instigation being led by the Ukrainian government. Several reports have claimed, Euromaidan was organized by ultra-nationalists, fascists, neo-Nazis, and anti-Semitic groups such as Right Sector, and that the revolution was a violent coup that overthrew an elected government. At the same time also alleging the movement of have LGBT agendas.6 After a deliberative vote in which Arseniy Yatsenyuk was elected as transitional Prime Minister and ongoing after t