April 26, 2026: Russian leader Vladimir Putin has caused numerous errors, driving down his support. As Russians’ rage about Putin’s moves to disable the Russian internet increases, Russian analysts are revealing more errors Putin has been making and surveys show his support declining to disastrous levels.

There are increasing indications that hostility to Putin’s policies is spreading throughout the leaders, increasing the probability that they will merge into groups which might seek and perhaps even succeed in blocking Russian government policies and erode voter support.

None of this means Putin is about to be emasculated, let alone overthrown. But it could persuade Putin to take even more repressive and aggressive measures. Taken together, these developments suggest Putin is now less able to act as if opposition to his policies is irrelevant.

Russian anger over President Vladimir Putin’s moves against the internet is growing and spreading even to groups long thought to be his most loyal supporters. Russian commentators are pointing to other mistakes Putin has been making, and opinion surveys show that his approval rating is falling to the lowest level since before he launched the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. He now faces a buildup of disapproval that some have called an apocalypse. There are even posters and carrying of signs, which are important indications in the Russian system that opposition to Putin’s policies is spreading, increasing the likelihood of groups coalescing that will seek and perhaps even succeed in blocking government policies that they do not approve of. None of this, to be sure, means Putin is about to be overthrown as it could lead him, as it has in the past when he felt at all cornered, to take even more repressive and aggressive steps. This combination of factors, however, does suggest that he will no longer be able to act as if opposition is irrelevant and will likely have to devote more time to rebuilding his authority among leaders and in the population.

Putin’s moves against the internet are increasingly unpopular because they have affected the lives of so many Russians, including members of the leadership in government, the military, and business who have grown accustomed to using various internet channels. Recent polls show that support for and trust in the Government leader have fallen to seven year lows. The decline reflects anger over his internet policies, a flood of bad news at home and abroad in recent months, and signs that Putin does not intend to change strategy. This marks a shift from the past, when he often backed away from the more extreme aspects of his policies or sought to isolate unpopular ones by restricting their impact, as was the case with his war against Ukraine, where, instead of general mobilization, he relied on huge bonuses to encourage enlistment. That policy is now failing. In 2022, only 15 percent of Russians had a close relative in the war. Now more than twice that share do. Russian analysts argue that popular anger over Putin’s moves against the internet is compounded by other concerns, including the lack of progress in Ukraine toward either victory or peace, failures in Venezuela and Iran, and deteriorating economic and social conditions at home.

Putin has responded to protests about the internet in two ways, repression and silence. He has ordered widespread arrests and detentions of those who have taken to the streets to protest his actions. He has not spoken out about the internet restrictions or any of these other problems in recent times, reducing his public appearances in the last quarter by a significant amount compared to 2025. The Russian leader may suppose that repression is enough, but his failure to address various issues may result in an even larger problem, analysts say, as it contributes to the sense that he is out of touch.

Putin may not care very much about popular opposition to his internet policies. He still has reliable security forces to control the situation, and his popularity ratings are above 60 percent in polls released by his government. Putin certainly has reason to worry about the appearance of opposition to his internet policies among members of his leaders, especially technocratic groups that favor development over tighter control. Ever more members of these groups have been speaking out, contributing to the sense, not only among other elite groups but also in the Russian population, that splits are developing in the government. This perception encourages others to resist, in the hope of tipping the political balance away from Putin and toward those who share their views.

The question now is how far this process, involving the alienation of the Russian population and of leaders beyond the loyal generals. Russian commentators imply that Putin has been committing more mistakes and angering more ordinary people and members of the leadership than at any time since he began his expanded Ukraine war. While the situation has not yet reached a critical level and, as a result, Putin may be able to ride out this storm, it will come with increased difficulty, especially if he does not return to the tactics he used in earlier crises his government faced.

In six earlier crises since Putin became president, government leaders not only took public positions to seize the propagandist high ground but also modified his policies. This signaled that he was paying attention to the population and would avoid angering it more than he felt necessary. Now Putin is doing neither, however, appearing in public far less frequently and showing no signs of being willing to modify his original decisions. This increasingly sclerotic approach has come to a head over the last three months, as the government has suffered a series of policy defeats abroad amid a rising tide of problems at home. Dictators fail when the number of problems grows too large for them to handle. Such rulers, however, risk serious problems if they do not show themselves responding to crises and act as if they are not required to. That is where the Putin dictatorship now stands. The number of problems is growing, although likely not yet to the point where they alone will be enough to bring the government leader down. Putin’s failure to react now is undermining his rule, perhaps not enough to lead to his ouster in the immediate future but likely reducing the number of additional crises that could prove sufficient to produce that outcome.