Russia Has Stopped Publishing Putin's Actual Approval Rating After It Fell Below 30%
- 8.06.2026, 18:51
The Russian dictator is rapidly losing popularity.
The All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) has stopped publishing Vladimir Putin’s approval rating, which is calculated using the “open-ended survey” method — that is, when respondents are asked to choose the politicians they trust without being told the Russian president’s name in advance. This is reported by The Moscow Times.
Calculated in this way, Putin’s approval rating as of early April fell to 29.5%, the lowest level since the start of the war, and was more than half that of the rating in the “closed” poll, where people are asked whether they trust Putin specifically (73.8% in early April and 72.3% in late May).
Since the start of the year, Putin’s “open” trust rating has fallen by 5.5 points, and by 19.5 points (i.e., by more than a third) compared to the March 2024 peaks, and compared to the record level of 2014, it has more than halved: at that time, 68% of respondents spoke of “trust” in Putin.
The “open” rating, which was previously published once a month, was last presented on the VTsIOM website on April 5 (based on March results). The data for April, which was supposed to be released at the end of the month or in early May, has not yet been published by VTsIOM. As of June 8, the May rating has not been published either.
In the fifth year of the war with Ukraine, Putin has likely found himself facing a “combination of challenges” that is “unprecedented in all the time he has been in power,” notes Tatyana Katsueva-Jean, director of the Russian-Eurasian Center at the French Institute of International Relations.
Putin is bogged down in a war he can neither win nor end—a war that is eroding the unspoken social contract: stability and predictability in exchange for loyalty, Katsueva-Jean explains. Economic forecasts are growing bleaker, she notes, and people are increasingly concerned about rising prices and internet blackouts
“The economic burden, restrictions, and a general sense of prolonged uncertainty all combine into a single sentiment: ‘It’s possible to keep living like this, but I want to less and less,’” political analyst Ilya Graschenkov describes the mood. Anxiety is growing in society, he notes: according to FOM data, for the first time in several years, more than half of those surveyed are expressing anxiety.
At the same time, Putin’s approval ratings have been falling in recent weeks, while the “approval” ratings for the government and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin have been rising—to 41.1% and 44.9%, respectively, Graschenkov points out: “The public may be weary of the general atmosphere, but it does not automatically transfer this frustration to the cabinet.”