President Putin’s electoral rating drops below 60 per cent

MOSCOW – A leading Russian polling agency says the electoral rating of President Vladimir Putin has dropped below 60 per cent for the first time in five years.

The survey by Levada Center published Thursday showed 56 per cent of likely voters saying they would cast their ballots for Putin in elections expected in 2024. That is 10 per cent lower than a year ago. The last time electoral support for Putin dropped below 60 per cent, according to similar Levada surveys, was in 2013.

Putin, who has been ruling Russia since 2000, was re-elected for another six-year term in March. Unpopular changes to the pension system announced earlier this year have dented his popularity, while euphoria over the widely popular 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula has waned.