Updated
Updated · Meduza · May 29
Putin Approval Falls 1.9 Points to 67.5% as Pollster Flags War Fatigue
Updated
Updated · Meduza · May 29

Putin Approval Falls 1.9 Points to 67.5% as Pollster Flags War Fatigue

1 articles · Updated · Meduza · May 29

Summary

  • VTsIOM said Putin’s approval rating fell 1.9 percentage points in a week to 67.5% in results published May 29, extending a slide the state pollster has tracked since late March.
  • Early-May methodology changes — adding in-person household surveys to telephone interviews — did not stop the decline; after a brief mid-May uptick to 66.8%, the rating fell again.
  • A strategist working with the presidential administration linked weaker ratings for Putin and United Russia to Telegram blocking, mobile internet restrictions, rising prices and public war fatigue.
  • FOM, another major pollster, showed a mixed picture the same day: trust in Putin rose to 73% from 71%, even as VTsIOM recorded the latest approval drop.

Insights

Trapped between war fatigue and a digital blockade, are ordinary Russians nearing a breaking point with the Kremlin?
Is the Kremlin's war on the internet at home becoming as costly as its grinding war in Ukraine?