Russian trust in Vladimir Putin collapses to 39%.

Vladimir Putin. The Moscow Times/Kremlin.

Trust in Russian leader Vladimir Putin has collapsed among Russians to 39%, the lowest rating since 2014. The Moscow Times. The rating fell 20 points in just one year. Many Russians are upset with an unpopular retirement law that raises the age of pensions to 65 for men and 60 for women. Many other members of Putin's government also had a major drop in trust ratings as well. Putin's ratings went up after the annexation of Crimea which was seen a major victory for Russia. 

My Comment:

As always, make sure you take polls with a grain of salt. Without being able to look at the actual poll numbers and the margin of error it's hard to tell if this poll is accurate or not. And we all know that polling is manipulated here in America so I have no doubt that it is happening in Russia as well. 

Still, I tend to believe it. If there is one thing people don't like it's having their retirement messed with. Russia is a tough place to live in the first place but having to work well into your 60's to get a pension you already earned is pretty terrible. Getting screwed out of retirement is the easiest way to crater your approval ratings. I understand why Putin is doing it as pensions are ludicrously expensive and their current retirement ages, 60 for men and 55 for women, which is a little bit lower than many other countries. Still, even if the move makes sense in a fiscal sense, it was always going to be unpopular. 

That being said, I do wonder if there aren't other factors as well. Putin's wars in Ukraine and Syria can't be that popular. Though it is unclear how many Russian soldiers and mercenaries have died in both conflicts, I doubt it is a small number. The secrecy around both campaigns isn't helping things either. The only way Russians get to know about casualties in both conflicts is to watch for funerals. 

However, Putin is pretty much poll proof. His term ends in 2024 and it's unclear that he will run again. There seems very little that the people of Russia can do if they don't want him in power anymore. Still, alienating your base even after getting reelected safely is not going to end well for you. But even if he does run again, he's got almost six years to turn his polling around. There are a million things that could happen between now and then that could either raise or lower his polling. Perhaps by that point the Russians will have accepted a older retirement age. 

I do wonder what a world where Putin isn't in power anymore will be like. Perhaps we could finally have a good relationship with Russia. Putin doesn't really seem to have a heir apparent. My guess is that whoever replaces him will be more friendly to America. Of course it's also possible that some Russian hardliner could replace him and our relationship with Russia could get even worse. We will have to wait and see.