MOSCOW, April 24 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval rating has fallen for a seventh week in a row to 65.6%, its lowest level since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to state pollster VTsIOM.
Russia's paramount leader, who was appointed acting president by Boris Yeltsin just eight years after the fall of the Soviet Union, has ruled the country since 1999 either as president or prime minister.
A former KGB lieutenant colonel who watched the Soviet Union collapse
while based in East Germany, Putin will overtake Josef Stalin and become Russia's longest-serving ruler since Empress Catherine the Great if he completes his current six-year term.
But his ratings, though still high by Western standards, have taken a hit in recent weeks. Putin's approval rating is down from 73.3% in March, while trust in him has slipped over the same period to 71% from above 77%, according to VTsIOM.
It was not immediately clear why Putin's rating, though still very high, was falling. Last week he ordered his top officials to come up with ways to kick-start the economy after a contraction in the first two months of the year.
A crackdown on the mobile internet, messengers and VPNs has caused frustration for many Russians in the past few months.
Putin said on Thursday that the internet outages were necessary for security reasons, but that law enforcement officials must show "ingenuity" to find solutions and guarantee the functioning of vital services.
STATE CENSORSHIP
Amid war and state censorship, the question of what Russians truly think is the subject of considerable debate. Putin's supporters point to polls showing widespread approval of his rule but opponents question how truthful people are when speaking to pollsters in such a controlled environment.
His approval rating jumped after the invasion of Ukraine, rising to just below 80% from 64.3%, and has stayed well over 75% for most of the war, albeit with brief dips after mobilisation to the army was announced in 2022, according to VTsIOM.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin's trust rating fell to 53.8%, former president Dmitry Medvedev's rose to 36.8%, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov's rating rose to 32.7% and Just Russia leader Sergei Mironov's rating rose to 29.8%.
Ahead of a parliamentary election due by late September, there have been a number of unusually public warnings by some bloggers and politicians that there must be change in Russia to avoid the risk of unrest.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Gareth Jones)
