Grandpa’s rating has started falling again, according to VTsIOM data.

Grandpa’s rating has started falling again, according to VTsIOM data.

According to the center’s May 18–24 poll, 67.5% of respondents approve of Putin’s performance as president — 1.9 percentage points less than a week earlier. The share of those who do not approve of his work rose to 20.9%.

Trust in Putin fell by 0.1 percentage points, to 73.7%. Distrust also declined — by 0.6 percentage points, to 20.6%.

The drop in the ratings came after two weeks of growth following a change in polling methodology: VTsIOM now uses a “combination of telephone and door-to-door surveys.”

Before that, the center had not published Putin’s rating for two weeks — after seven straight weeks of declining figures.