Economic crisis in Russia is eroding Putin’s immense popularity

It had been almost three years since Vladimir Putin had kissed a child in public. On April 27, amid an unprecedented wave of — albeit mild — criticism regarding the country’s situation, the Russian president repeated a gesture of closeness to the people that he hadn’t practiced since the Wagner Group rebellion in June 2023. The Russian leader kissed a young gymnast on the forehead and smiled as his approval ratings plummeted to their lowest level since the start of his offensive in Ukraine. Three days later, he hugged another girl in public. Support for the president remains immense, but its decline has been notable since the economic crisis became visible last year, and the situation appears set to worsen.

Polls by the state polling agency VTSIOM reflect a sharp drop in Putin’s popularity over the past two months. In its latest publication, released on April 24, the president’s approval rating had fallen to 65.5%. In February, it exceeded 74%.

Another Kremlin-linked agency, FOM, also reflects this gradual decline in confidence in Putin. Its poll, published last Friday, showed an approval rating of 73%, just two points higher than his lowest point of the war, during the initial days of the invasion of Ukraine. However, back then his approval rating rose, not fell, from 64% to 71% thanks to his ability to unite Russians around the Kremlin with a swift “special military operation.”

The independent Levada Center for Sociological Research shows Putin’s approval rating at 79% — although it has dropped six points since the beginning of the year — and notes that the downward trend has been very visible since last year. In fact, another poll shows a drop from 67% to 55% among Russians who believe the country is “on the right track” during the same period.

The Russian president’s approval rating remains overwhelmingly high, but the trend in the polls worries the Kremlin because the driving force behind this discontent — the economic crisis, not the war, hitting people in their wallets — is intensifying. Adding to these problems is the offensive launched by the security services to control the last bastion of Russian freedom, the internet, by blocking it.

“This is mainly due to the economic situation. Since the middle of last year, we have observed a steady decline in people’s perception of the economic situation, both in terms of the current situation and, above all, their one- and five-year projections,” explains Denis Volkov, director of the Levada Center, by telephone. “Inflation is the number one problem,” the expert adds.

The Russian economy has been sustained since 2022 thanks to the enormous demand from the army and military factories, although this has absorbed the resources of the civilian industry, dragging it into a crisis that first became noticeable in 2025.

The war united Russians around Putin, but weariness is setting in. “Because of the current social mobilization [around the war], the time for opposition politicians hasn’t yet arrived, but if the economic situation continues to deteriorate, we could return to a time when people are more receptive to criticism. That moment hasn’t arrived yet, although we are gradually moving in that direction,” Volkov explains.

Even the Presidential Palace has subtly warned about this phenomenon. “Our society is tired of the rhetoric of prohibitions. It’s impossible to prohibit everything, especially for people who plan to become parents or start a large family. They already have enough problems,” a close associate of Sergei Kiriyenko, the leader of the Kremlin’s political faction and partly responsible for the presidential administration, openly acknowledged this week.

“If urgent financial, economic, and other measures are not taken, we could face the same situation as in 1917 this fall,” warned Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of Russia, referring to the Russian Revolution. His party, loyal to Putin since he came to power, could emerge much stronger from Russian discontent over economic problems in the parliamentary elections scheduled for the fall.

Criticism has surfaced for the first time in three years following a series of Instagram posts by several Russian celebrities who, without denouncing the war, blamed Putin’s advisors for failing to inform the president about the country’s problems. Based on their measured language and subsequent interviews with Russian propagandists, many opposition figures suspect it was a presidential operation to convince Putin that his security forces had gone too far with their internet censorship.

The Russian leader finally broke his silence to support his police in front of his politicians, a sign that restrictions may only increase. “This is related to operational work to prevent terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, sometimes these attacks slip through the net. Ensuring the safety of the people will always be a priority,” Putin said.

The presidential administration is concerned, on the one hand, that the Federal Security Service (FSB) will increase its power by using its tools — Telegram and the rest of the internet, for example — to control Russian social movements. Direct repression and discontent toward Putin are incompatible with the political faction’s strategy. On the other hand, the growth of the Communist Party is a threat to Kiriyenko’s personal projects, such as the New People party.

Putin, at the helm of the country since New Year’s Eve 1999, consolidated the support of Russians by establishing himself as the sole guarantor of stability in the face of the chaos experienced in the post-Soviet years. The mantra that it was him or pandemonium worked until his unexpected invasion of Ukraine. Today, polls reflect that Russians, despite their support for the leader, see the country as they did during the terrible 1990s of economic crisis, organized crime, and wars.

Levada polls show that six out of 10 Russians have a negative view of the country’s current political situation, unprecedented since the beginning of Putinism in the 2000s. Fifty-two percent see it as tense, and another 9% consider it critical. This negative perception has grown by nine points in the last year, and, except for a brief spike at the start of the war in February 2022, the pessimistic view of Russians is gradually approaching the widespread disillusionment of the 1990s.

According to polls, 26 years of Putinism have brought the country back to square one. The question is whether he will repeat his tactic of the last quarter-century: seeking a new enemy — internal or external — when the popularity of the “guarantor of stability” is at an all-time low.

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