(FP) The coronavirus pandemic has created problems for countries around the world, but it seems it may hurt Russia in particular, creating new and complicated challenges for President Vladimir Putin. Findings from a new study conducted with the independent survey company Levada Center show that the conditions created by the pandemic have seriously undermined the Kremlin’s ability to deliver economic growth and public goods—two key historical bulwarks of Putin’s stability. Put together with other long-term trends, such as the growing importance of civil rights and urbanization, a surprisingly bleak picture emerges for the man who has led Russia for the past 20 years
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Co-authors: Denis Volkov, deputy director at the Levada Center in Moscow, and Stepan Goncharov, senior research fellow for the Levada Center.
