Putin is failing to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, and Russians know it

Putin's determination to avoid taking the blame for any missteps dealing with the virus and his use of local leaders as human shields has not, though, gone unnoticed by his constituents. A recent independent poll found that trust in Putin fell by 10 percentage points between January and May, to 25%, the lowest in years. At the same time, more respondents felt that governors or mayors were doing a good job than those who said the central government was.