Page 29 - RusRPTFeb19

fixed to ensure a United Russia victory.
The current fall in trust is a dramatic 20-point decline from last March when Putin was re-elected president. At the height of the presidential campaign 57.2% of respondents said they trusted Putin, but after the elections were over that fell quickly. By the beginning of July 2018 trust had fallen to 45.4% before it stabilized at 35–37% last autumn.
The number of Russians that want the government to resign rose to over half in December to 53%, up from 33% in November, according to the most recent poll by independent pollster the Levada Center, Vedomosti reported on January 14.
The government has taken a hit by a range of issues that has hurt its popularity in 2018. An increase in retirement ages introduced last summer during the World Cup has been extremely unpopular, as was a hike in VAT rates from 18% to 20% that went into effect on January 1.
The retirement ages were 60 years for men and 55 for women, set in USSR back in 1930's when average life expectancy was 40 years, but has been increased to 65 for men and 63 for women.
Levada found the main complaints about the cabinet was its inability to cope with rising prices and falling incomes population (57%), lack of readiness to provide people with work (46%), lack of care for the social protection of citizens (43%).
Over the past six months, general scepticism regarding the government has grown, the sociologist of Levada Center Marina Krasilnikova explains as cited by Vedomosti: “The main complaints are still against the government, although the level of trust in the president also sank significantly. There is a steady deterioration in public sentiment. It is important that people respond more actively to the question of complaints against the government, they give more diverse and specific answers. "
Krasilnikova argues that the pension age hike was undermined the trust in the state and ”confirmed the fears that the state is not a very reliable institution.”
This poses a problem for Putin as the increase in pension age, while necessary from an economic point of view, has undone the social contract between the president and the people.
29 RUSSIA Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com