MOSCOW – Trust in President Vladimir Putin has plunged to 39 percent amongordinary Russians, according to an opinion poll published Monday amidpopular discontent over pension reforms.-
It is the lowest rating for Putin since 2014, before he enjoyed a surge inpopularity over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
The survey by the independent Levada Centre found that trust in Putin hasfallen nine percentage points since June and a total of 20 percentagepoints since November 2017.
Thirteen percent of Russians said they did not trust him, according to thelatest poll carried out between September 20 and 26.
The veteran Russian leader last week signed into law a bill that willgradually increase the state retirement age to 60 for women and 65 for men,the first such increase since the 1930s.
Most ordinary Russians are deeply opposed to the reforms, which sparkedrare street protests.
“People think the government is trying to solve its problems at thepublic’s expense. It has made an attempt to take something people considerto be theirs: pension savings,” Levada Centre director Lev Gudkov told theVedomosti business daily.
He said social tensions have been building since the end of last yearbecause of a variety of factors including a fall in real earnings andrising prices.
While Putin easily won the March presidential election with more than 76percent of the vote, public discontent about the pension reforms meant “allelements of concern (about him) were lumped together”, Gudkov said.
This led to a fall in trust not only in Putin but also in his allies:Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, he addedsaid.
Putin’s personal style of rule means he “cannot hand over responsibility tosomeone else” for unpopular decisions, political analyst Dmitry Orlov toldVedomosti.
Putin’s lowest ever rating in such a Levada poll was in August 2013, whenjust 30 percent named him as a trusted politician.
He had suffered a long period of decline in support after the 2008 economiccrisis and a wave of protests in 2011-12.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment to Vedomosti on thelatest poll.