Daniel Treisman writing for the Monkey Cage:
From 2000 to 2010, Putin’s ratings had closely tracked Russians’ perceptions of the state of the country’s economy...
...However, the pattern changes in 2011, when presidential approval appears to de-link from perceptions of the economy. The question is why.
...
In fact, support for the country’s leaders sank not just among hyper-modern, democratically-inclined Muscovites but among almost all social, geographical, and economic subgroups. Even in small towns and the countryside, approval dropped 10 points...
The argument that best fits the data sounds paradoxical given the pattern shown in the graph. Putin’s popularity fell because economics became not less but more important...
The data are far from definitive, so one should not bet the farm on this interpretation. But it fits better than most others. If it is correct, several implications follow...