The president's trust rating has reached a five-year low.

The president's trust rating has fallen to 2013 levels, according to a Levada Center survey. The decrease in confidence in the president is explained by the shock of people who expected wage increases after the elections, and not the retirement age. For the first time in six years, the president was “overtaken” by the army in terms of confidence, which aroused a sense of pride among the population during the demonstration of new weapons.

Details

• The confidence rating of the president fell from 75% in 2017 to 58% in 2018, thus returning to the figures before the annexation of Crimea, follows from the data of the Levada Center. Also, from 4 to 13%, the number of respondents who believe that the president "does not deserve" trust has increased (after a wave of protests in 2012, there were also 13%).
• “A noticeable drop in the presidential rating” was recorded at the beginning of 2018, told Levada Center sociologist Denis Volkov Kommersant. According to him, the mobilization of Putin's supporters was finally completed after the presidential elections: "instead of the promised increase in wages, people received an increase in the retirement age." Volkov sees no prerequisites for an increase in Putin's rating.
• VTsIOM also records a sharp drop in the rating of confidence in Vladimir Putin. In the rating of trust in politicians, Vladimir Putin's indicator is now lower not only before the Crimean period, but also lower than December 2011, when protests began against the falsification of elections to the State Duma (at that time 37.4% of respondents declared confidence in Putin). And at the end of September this year, only 37.2% of respondents trusted the president.
• For the first time in six years, the army overtook the president in the trust rating, reaching 66%. This is slightly lower than last year (69%), but significantly higher than in 2012 (39%). Many respondents said they “feel proud when they watch videos of missiles being launched from the Caspian Sea into Syria and a demonstration of high-tech weapons,” Volkov said.
• A trend similar to Putin's was recorded by sociologists in the population's trust in the Federation Council (the rating fell from 35 to 25%, in 2012 it was 21%) and the State Duma (a decrease from 33 to 23%, in 2012 it was 20%). But the rating of trust in the government fell even lower than in 2012 (29%) - to 27%. “The rating of these structures fell less than that of the president, because it was initially low and no one had hopes for them,” Volkov said.

Context

• On the eve of Putin signed the law on pension reform.
• The reform has already sparked a series of protests that drew tens of thousands of people across the country and led to a drop in the ratings of the country's leadership.

The president is unlikely to be able to spend all six years in power with a low rating. And this means that the Kremlin's political technologists will have to figure out how to fix it. And this is fraught with risks: in 2014, the president's rating was corrected with the annexation of Crimea, which led to the imposition of sanctions against Russia.

Liana Faizova