Putin’s approval rating falls below 70%, its lowest since before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Russia’s state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) has recorded a further decline in Vladimir Putin’s approval rating.

In the week of March 30 to April 5, the rating stood at 67.8 percent, down 2.3 percentage points from the previous measurement period of March 19–22, the center’s website reported.

Putin’s approval rating has not been this low since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. The last survey conducted before the war, carried out February 14–20, 2022, put his approval rating at 64.3 percent, according to VTsIOM. In the years that followed, it never fell below 70 percent.

Putin’s approval rating first fell below pre-war levels in mid-March, according to VTsIOM.

The Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), whose primary client is Russia’s Presidential Administration, has also recorded declining approval numbers for Putin. A survey conducted at the end of March showed 74 percent of respondents approving of his performance as president, the worst result in a year. A follow-up poll conducted April 3–5 showed the rating rising by one percentage point, to 75 percent, FOM reported.

Both FOM and VTsIOM published their weekly ratings on April 10 several hours later than usual.

A political consultant working with Russia’s Presidential Administration told Meduza that the Kremlin’s approval ratings are falling. He cited public frustration over the blocking of Telegram and restrictions on mobile internet access as among the reasons, while stressing that other factors are also at play. Assessing the specific contribution of the internet restrictions to the ratings decline is difficult, he said: “Too much [negative] is happening at once — from rising prices to growing war fatigue. It’s hard to say how much of that is down to the restrictions specifically.”