Poutine's Approval Plummets to 65.6% Amidst Internet Censorship

Recent polling shows Vladimir Putin's popularity has declined significantly over the past months, reaching a new low of 65.6% on April 19 according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center. This drop marks the lowest approval rating since the start of the war in Ukraine, falling from 74% in early February. The decline is attributed to fatigue over the war, economic difficulties, and increasingly strict social media blockades within the country. Concurrently, disapproval of his actions rose from 15.5% to 23.3%. A similar trend is observed regarding public trust in his leadership. In Moscow, social media influencers have begun addressing the president directly to highlight issues such as environmental disasters, local crisis management, and internet outages, prompting public responses from the Kremlin. These vocalizations reflect growing social irritation against persistent inflation, reduced consumption, tighter credit access, and corporate pressure. With legislative elections approaching in five months, the Kremlin appears increasingly concerned about these survey results. To counter the downward trend, Putin recently resumed a communication ritual involving public embraces with children, a scene that had not occurred since June 2023 following the mutiny of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group mercenaries.