There are conflicting views of the at-home popularity of Russia’s President Putin. The conventional view is that he is popular with Russians. Jay Nordlinger of National Review wrote recently that claims of his popularity should be seriously discounted or ignored.
For a look at data which sheds light on the issue, see a BBC article with 10 charts which look at how things are going in today’s Russia. On the upside, population growth has resumed, Ikea™ is popular, and private auto ownership - nearly unheard of in Soviet times - now is relatively common, with something like half of Russian households owning a car.
Other positive indicators include a drop in vodka sales, a modest increase in champagne consumption, and a decline in families living below the poverty level. If the Beeb’s numbers are accurate, there are certainly bread-and-butter reasons for Putin’s stewardship being viewed by Russians as positive.
Something that doesn’t show in their charts, but a factor nevertheless, is that however you feel about Putin, he is a Russian patriot, a nationalist. I believe that resonates with many Russians in the same way Trump’s American patriotic nationalism resonates with many Americans.
I do find it passing strange the official British news service would carry this relatively positive article at a time when Britain is angry with Russia over the attempted nerve gas assassination in Salisbury of a Russian defector and his daughter. It is near-universally believed this attack was carried out by Russian government agents with Putins’s tacit or explicit approval.
