The popularity of Vladimir Putin<\/b> has fallen for a seventh consecutive week to 65.6%, <\/b>the lowest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine<\/b> in February 2022, according to state-run pollsVTsIOM.<\/b><\/p>\n
Putin, who was appointed to the presidency<\/b> by Boris Yeltsin<\/b> just eight years after the breakup of the Soviet Union<\/b>, has held power since 1999<\/b> either as president or prime minister<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Former Lieutenant Colonel of the KGB<\/b>, who watched the fall of the USSR from the headquarters of the Soviet secret services in East Germany, Putin will surpass Joseph Stalin<\/b> and become the longest-serving<\/b> leader of Russia since Catherine the Great<\/b> if he completes his current six-year term in the Kremlin<\/b>.<\/p>\n
However, his popularity<\/b>, though far too high by measures<\/b> of what applies in democracies, has been flattened<\/b> in recent weeks. Positive opinions of him fell from 73.3% in March,<\/b> while confidence in him fell to 71% from 77%,<\/b>according to VTsIOM.<\/p>\n
It is not clear why Poot In’s performance is declining<\/b>. Last week he ordered his executives<\/b> to find ways to boost the economy<\/b> after a contraction in the first two months of the year. The blocking of mobile internet, messaging<\/b> apps<\/b> and VPNs have displeased many Russians in recent months.<\/p>\nWhat do Russians really think<\/h3>\n
In the midst of war, state repression and censorship<\/b>, the question of what Russians <\/b> really think is a matter for debate.<\/p>\n
Putin’s supporters cite polls<\/b> that show widespread approval of his rule, but opponents<\/b> question how honest people are when talking to pollsters in such a controlled environment.<\/p>\n
His popularity jumped after the invasion of Ukraine<\/b>, rising to just under 80% from 64.3%. Until two months ago it had remained well above 75%, with a few dips after the retrenchment<\/b> measures announced in 2022, according to VTsIOM.<\/p>\n
Trust in Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin<\/b> fell to 53.8%<\/b>, former President Dmitry Medvedev<\/b> came in at 36.8%, <\/b>Communist Party general secretary Gennady Zyuganov at 32.7%<\/b> and Fair Russia party leader Sergei Mironov at 29.8%.<\/b><\/p>\n
Ahead of parliamentary elections<\/b> in late September, there have been recent unusual warnings from some bloggers and politicians that there must be change<\/b> in Russia to avoid the risk of social unrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vladimir Putin’s approval rating fell for the seventh week in a row to 65.6 percent, the lowest level since Russia’s invasion of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}