Marc Bennetts reports today in The Times of London that Russians are losing faith in Vladimir Putin. He writes:
Public trust in President Putin has slumped to an all-time low according to polls…. Only 33.4% of Russian voters believe that Mr Putin is able to resolve the country’s most pressing concerns, an opinion poll published by the Vtsiom agency indicated. The figure represents a drop of more than 30 percentage points since 2015.
Even US Republicans are losing some faith in Putin. 28% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have confidence that Putin will do the right thing, according to a poll published last month by Pew Research Center, down from 34% the year before. (Only 15% of US Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents share that confidence, nearly unchanged from last year.)
Another poll of Russians published last week said that 53% of Russians want Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s government to resign, the first time a majority has backed dismissal. Ilya Arkhipov and Andrey Biryukov reported in Bloomberg last week that:
Medvedev’s cabinet is unable to tackle rising prices and falling incomes, according to 57% of respondents, while 46% said the government can’t provide people with jobs.
The Russian government’s declining popularity may circumscribe what Putin can accomplish in Russia’s foreign relations. Yesterday, hundreds of Russians demonstrated on Suvorovskaya Square, just outside Moscow’s center, protesting the possibility that Putin will return to Japan four small islands that the Soviet Union seized in the closing days of World War II. Other demonstrations were reported in Khabarovsk, Nakhodka and Kaliningrad. Putin is set to hold talks about the islands tomorrow with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
It’s not easy being the richest person in the world, the puppetmaster of Trump, and the autocrat of all Russia — and Putin might be thinking, “Is this the thanks I get?” when he sees his polls. The last time his poll numbers were so low, he invaded Ukraine to bring them back up again. Who knows what he’ll do this time around?