Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's approval rating fell in March to the lowest level since mid 2005 on perceptions of economic stagnation a year before Russia's presidential vote, the Levada-Center pollster said on Thursday.
Putin remains Russia's most popular politician but his rating fell to 69 percent from 73 percent in February while President Dmitry Medvedev's rating fell to 66, the lowest since he took office in 2008, from 69 percent.
The declines in approval are likely to perturb the Kremlin's political managers ahead of the March 2012 presidential election. Putin and Medvedev have said they will decide later this year on which of them will stand in the election.
Levada-Center's deputy director, Alexei Grazhdankin, said the poll ratings were falling on perceptions that vast revenues from high oil prices were not reaching the population and that Russia's leadership lacked ambitious economic aims.
"The state's revenue from high oil prices is growing, but this does not reach the population," Grazhdankin told Reuters. "Putin promised in his time to double GDP but now there are no aims at all. We have come out of the crisis but there is no feeling that life is improving," he said.
Russia's economy returned to growth last year after the economic crisis tested public confidence in Putin's boasts that he brought economic stability to Russia.
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