Panicked Putin Takes Desperate Step to Fix His Popularity Crisis

Vladimir Putin is on a charm offensive.

The Russian president has cast off the shackles of his wartime isolation in a desperate bid to put himself in front of his citizens across the sprawling Russian continent—even venturing as far as Siberia.

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At the start of the year, Putin was a ghost, said to be paranoid about assassination attempts and Ukrainian drones. Radio Free Europe reported in May he was working from three identical-looking bunkers to obfuscate his true location.

In a stunning change, he has visited six cities in the last three weeks, three of which are in Siberia, which analysts have told The Times may be part of a bid to boost his popularity ratings.

Kremlin-affiliated poll FOM puts the 73-year-old’s approval at the lowest point since the war began in 2022, at 66 percent, according to the Times.

Speaking to the British newspaper, exiled Russian journalist and Vlast boss Farida Rustamova said, “For a long time now, [Putin’s] own approval rating has been the primary indicator of the state of affairs in the country for him.

“It is the system’s pulse, and the entire machine operates to sustain that rating. It is unlikely that he is overly concerned about his personal standing at this very moment, yet the system is so fixated on him as an individual that he is compelled to keep it running at peak performance.

“He genuinely believes that his public appearances reassure people. It’s long been proven [by opinion polls] that they don’t, but he believes it.”

Ukraine’s drones have caused havoc for Russian infrastructure, with strikes on its oil refineries causing lengthy lines to get gas until last week, Vlast reports.

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There was also a spike in prices for Russians far from the Kremlin’s eyeline, and an energy crisis thought to be larger than any in the country since the fall of the Soviet Union. But reports suggest prices cooled when the president came to town.

In the Siberian cities of Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk, independent Russian outlet Meduza reports that gas prices plummeted while he was there. A Second independent outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe, in a post on Telegram, linked the fall directly to Putin’s visit.

Meanwhile in Siberia’s largest city, Novosibirsk, the Times reports that beautification has taken place, with roads repaired and grass trimmed.

“They’re practically rebuilding the city in three days,” one person wrote on social media, cited by the Times. “Damn, I wish he’d visit more often, maybe then we’d see a whole new city built in a year.”

While Russia doesn’t have free and fair elections, Putin’s popularity is still important for his grip on the nation and its security apparatus, including the FSB. He becomes more reliant on his intel agencies the less popular he is, and the more discontent takes root.

Russian opposition journalist Mikhail Fishman told the Times that there are signs suggesting Putin can’t work out how popular he is at the moment.