Page 20 - RusRPTJun19

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating was up to 66% in April, according to Levada, from 64% a month earlier, but still down from the sky- high 82% in April last year.
Putin’s rating was the highest it has been this year as he slowly starts to shake off hits he took following the hike in VAT rates by 2pp to 20% that came into effect in January and the increase in retirement ages imposed last summer.
In 2016 trust in Russian President Vladimir Putin was 71%, but it has tumbled since then on the back of conflicts with the west and stagnating income levels to 31.7% in May, according to the state owned pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM), Despite his glowing press in western media, the anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny is only trusted by 1.5% of Russians and remains a political non-entity on the domestic scene. Likewise, society it-girl and opposition figure Ksenia Sobchak is only trusted by 0.1% of those surveyed.
The approval of both the government and the Duma also rose to their highest levels this year, 42% and 39% respectively, but in both cases the institutions are underwater with the public as the disproval rates of both are higher: 56% and 59% respectively. And both approval ratings are slightly down from the 47% and 43% from April a year earlier.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also saw his approval rise mildly to 36% but the majority of Russian (62%) still disapprove of the scandal ridden PM and his approval also remains down from last year’s 42%. Currently 62% of Russians disapprove of Medvedev.
In stark contrast to the central government, the regional governors are now almost as popular as Putin, with the overall approval of governors up to 61% in April, according to Levada. The approval of governors touched 62% in January this year, but other than that the governors are more popular than at any time since September 2015.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, the situation in the regions has improved a lot in the last two years after Russia came close to a serious regional debt crisis in 2016. The aggregate regional budgets turned in a profit last year for the first time in 11 years and the Ministry of Finance just moved to take “manual control” over the most indebted regions' debt issuance plans as the central government continues to reform Russia’s finances.
Finally the patchy good news fed through to sending the “Russia moving in the right direction” indicator up by one point to 49% in April, its best result this year, but still down from 60% in April last year.
20 RUSSIA Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com