Putin has been making more public appearances amid falling approval ratings

In April and May 2026, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin significantly increased the number of his public appearances compared to the beginning of the year in an effort to artificially boost his image. Even the state services of the aggressor country are recording a decline in public trust ratings for the Russian leader. 

According to media reports, Putin participated in 60 public events in April and May, compared to 55 in the first three months of the year. Two staged meetings with “ordinary people” were arranged for the dictator, and two foreign visits were organized—to China and Kazakhstan. 

At the same time, Putin has practically stopped traveling through Russian regions due to a panic-stricken fear for his own safety, leaving Moscow only twice between January and May to visit St. Petersburg. The increase in public activity coincided with a drop in the “open” trust rating from respondents surveyed by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion to below 30% in April, after which sociologists stopped publishing this data altogether.

This was reported by Glavkom.

The Kremlin-controlled All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) stopped publishing the “open” trust rating for Putin after his rating dropped to its lowest level since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine.