Just-released confidence ratings for President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have fallen to their lowest levels of the past few years. What's more, the polls likely haven't taken into account people’s dissatisfaction with the way that authorities are fighting the country's wildfires.
The Public Opinion Foundation, VTsIOM and the Levada Center each have registered a drop in the confidence ratings of Medvedev and Putin since the beginning of the year. By Aug. 1, only 52 percent of Russians trusted Medvedev, which contrasts with January's figure of 62 percent. Support for the president has dropped this low only in 2008, when the economic crisis hit.
The prime minister’s rating also is at a minimum compared to recent years' figures, with 61 percent of the population expressing trust in him, the same as in June, the Foundation said. The last time support for Putin dipped that low was in 2006. In January, 69 percent of respondents expressed trust in the prime minister.
VTsIOM reported a similar trend. It said Medvedev’s confidence rating has fallen from 44 percent to 39 percent, and Putin’s from 53 percent to 47 percent. According to the Levada Center, confidence in the president has declined only from 39 percent to 38 percent, and from 48 percent to 44 percent for for the prime minister.
The level of support for those in power will obviously fall in August, said Gleb Pavlovsky, an adviser to the first deputy head of the presidential administration. He said the fires have caught the country's leadership by surprise, and the power vertical has proved to be useless in the very situation that those in power thought would be emblematic for themselves.
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