Putin’s Popularity Near 2008 Peak on Ukraine Actions

June 26, 2014 JRL Russia List Politics, Government, Protests, Elections, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian War

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov – June 26, 2014) Russian President Vladimir Putin’s popularity continued to rise near its 2008 peak this month amid the unrest in neighboring Ukraine, Moscow-based polling company Levada Center said in a statement.

The Russian leader’s approval rating is 86 percent, up from 65 percent in January and compared with the highest-ever 88 percent in 2008, Levada said. The number of those who disapprove of Putin’s actions in Ukraine fell to 13 percent from 16 percent, according to the June 20-23 poll of 1,600 people, which has a 3.4 percentage-point margin of error, it said.

The popularity of Putin, who returned to the presidency in 2012 amid the biggest protests against his rule, has been rising steadily this year, bolstered by Russia hosting it first Winter Olympics in February and the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March. Putin’s approval continued climbing as the country entered its tensest standoff with the U.S. and its allies over the escalating conflict in Ukraine.

“Authorities are always praised when they show a solid, determined stance,” Alexei Grazhdankin, Levada’s deputy director, said by phone today. “The confrontation between Russia and the western world here is consolidating society around the authorities more and more.”

Other polls also confirmed Putin’s surging popularity. Seventy-three percent of Russians want him to stay on as president after his term expires, state-run All-Russia Center for the Study of Public Opinion said June 20. A survey by the Public Opinion Foundation published yesterday showed that 66 percent are willing to prolong his presidency through 2024.

Putin, who first became president on New Year’s Eve 1999, returned to the Kremlin in 2012 after a four-year stint as prime minister because of a constitutional term limit. He won the election with 64 percent of the vote in an election marred by mass protests as international observers said the balloting fell short of some democratic standards.