About 83% of 1,632 people surveyed on March 24-30 supported Putin’s actions, Bloomberg on March 31 cited data from the Moscow-based Levada Center. The figure is up 12 percentage points from February and is the highest level since 2017.
In addition, 69% of participants agree that Russia is on the right track, up 17 percentage points. The rate of 69% is also the highest since Levada began conducting the survey in 1996.
“The situation is very similar to 2014 in the context of conflict with the West,” when Putin’s approval rating increased to an unprecedented level after the annexation of Crimea,” said Denis Volkov, Levada’s director.
Even those who care little about the Russian president agree that “he is doing the right thing” in Ukraine because they believe the official position is that Russia is threatened by NATO, according to Volkov.
“Russians believe that the West is trying to destroy Russia,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, a political adviser to the Kremlin during Putin’s first 10 years in power.
Severe sanctions imposed by the West against Russia “will only unite people” behind Putin’s back, Pavlovsky said.
The war in Ukraine has been going on for more than a month but there has been no breakthrough in the negotiation process, despite some recent positive signals. Russia recently announced that it will focus on the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.