Russia has stopped publishing Putin's trust rating
The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) has stopped publishing its “open” trust rating for Putin after his approval rating fell to its lowest level since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine.
According to The Moscow Times, in early April, the trust rating, which was determined through an open-ended survey, fell to 29.5%. In this format, respondents independently name the politicians they trust, without prompts from pollsters.
This figure turned out to be more than half that of the results of “closed” surveys, where participants are directly asked about their trust in Putin. At the end of May, that rating stood at 72.3%.
Since the beginning of 2026, the “open” trust rating for the Kremlin leader has dropped by 5.5 percentage points, and compared to the peak figures of March 2024, it has fallen by 19.5 points. Compared to the record high in 2014, when 68% of respondents expressed trust in Putin, the figure has more than halved.
The latest data from the open rating was released on April 5, based on March results. VTsIOM has not yet published figures for April and May.
At the same time, the approval rating for Putin’s performance, which the center continues to publish weekly, stood at 66.6% as of May 31. According to sociologists, this marks the second consecutive week of decline.
Source: The Moscow Times.
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