President Vladimir Putin, who has ruled Russia for two decades, breaking records of all leaders, including Leonid Brezhnev, continues to lose the trust of Russians, despite the efforts of state propaganda, which diligently protects his image.

In October 2021, the level of trust of Russians in the president fell to 53% reaching the minimum in the past 9 years, showed a survey by the Levada Center.

Having lost almost a third of the record post-Crimean “trust”, which was at 75-77%, Putin sank in the eyes of Russians to levels that sociologists recorded only three times during his reign.

According to the Levada Center, only in 2004-05 and in 2011-12, the level of trust in Putin fell below 55%.

The annexation of Crimea brought Putin’s ratings to historical highs, but the 2018 pension reform sent the rating down, and since then it has not been possible to stop the decline.

For the first time ever, people trust the president less than the army that is also losing credibility but slower than Putin, falling from 69% in 2017 to 61% now.

The level of public trust in state institutions is also falling. None of them has been able to gain additional “points” in recent years. The trust in State Duma dropped to 33% from 25% four years ago. Trust in the government decreased from 35% to 33%, in political parties from 19% to 17%.

The collapse of trust is being experienced by the church, which had 54% in 2014 and is only at 28% now, the lowest for all the time of research since 1989.

According to the Levada Center, the media (36% against 27% in 2014) and small business (33% now against 16% in 2009) have gained more public trust.

The survey was conducted on August 19-26, 2021, among 1619 people aged 18 years and older in 137 cities and townships of 50 subjects of the Russian Federation.

(c) UAWire