Putin’s approval rating keeps falling. Mid-May marked his worst numbers in a year.

Vladimir Putin’s approval rating fell to its lowest point in a year in mid-May, according to a poll whose results were presented on May 22 by one of Russia’s leading polling organizations, the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM).

The poll (.pdf), conducted May 15–17, found that 71% of Russians surveyed said Putin was performing “rather well” as president — the lowest figure recorded in the past year.

Another 14% rated his performance as “rather poor,” the highest figure in a year.

Trust in Putin, as measured by FOM, also fell to its lowest level of the year for the second time — only 71% said they “rather trust” the president. The previous dip to that level came in late March; before that, the figure had stayed above 76%.

In the new poll, 17% said they “rather distrust” Putin — the highest share since late March.

the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), meanwhile, reported that Putin’s approval rating stood at 69.4% based on a poll conducted May 11–17, up 2.6 percentage points from the previous week.

It was the second consecutive week the state-run polling center VTsIOM recorded a rise — the uptick began after pollsters started visiting respondents at home in addition to calling them by phone.

Leading sociological centers had been recording a drop in Putin’s approval rating since late March. This came amid the blocking of Telegram and mobile internet outages in various regions, as well as rising prices and Russians’ war fatigue, a political strategist working with the Kremlin told Meduza.

As his ratings fell, Vladimir Putin urged deputies and senators not to fixate solely on restrictive legislation. Recently, as Meduza found, the Kremlin banned state-controlled media from writing about bans.