Every time new trust ratings for President Vladimir Putin are released. Some commentators point out that public support for Putin’s course of continuing the war remains unchanged; others note that this support is on a slow downward trend. These arguments distract from the main point and, let us be honest, suit Putin’s administration perfectly well.

It should be stressed from the outset that the methods used cannot be considered valid and cannot provide a snapshot of Russians’ real attitudes on this question.  Russian sociologists are unlikely to be unaware of this. Quite the opposite.

If, after four and a half years of the full-scale phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war, after hundreds of thousands of Russian deaths, after trillions of dollars in economic losses, after the country’s expulsion from major global markets, all manner of restrictions and bans imposed on citizens, hours-long queues for gasoline and so on, around 70% of Russians say they fully or mostly trust the Kremlin usurper, then his power is truly sacred: neither Western economic sanctions nor Ukraine’s kinetic sanctions have shaken the people’s love or their credit of trust.

However, the closed nature of the polling — choosing between a set selection of answers and the explicit question of whether they trust Putin —only measures the ability of Russians to work out what is the most acceptable answer.

Tear Down the Wall of Silence Around Negotiations To End Russia-Ukraine War

Of course, the decline of this indicator is also extremely important. In regimes that are moving from consolidated autocracy toward totalitarianism, support for the father of the nation must be........

© The Moscow Times