PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 4th, 2026: Putin’s Popularity Plunges to Wartime Low & Israel Seizes Key Hezbollah Stronghold

**Mike Baker** (0:11)
It's Friday, the 4th of September. Welcome to the PDB Afternoon Bulletin. OK, to be fair, it's more like the Early Evening Bulletin today. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First up, Vladimir Putin, you remember him, is facing signs of growing public frustration at home as his approval ratings drop amid intensifying attacks from Kiev. Could growing domestic pressure change his strategy in Ukraine? I'll have the details later in the show. Israel says it's cleared Hezbollah fighters from a major underground stronghold in southern Lebanon, despite warnings from Iran against attacking the position. But the operation is also exposing just how far the two sides remain from implementing the U.S.-brokered agreement that was reached in June. Now, as we've noted repeatedly here on the PDB, that agreement was with the Lebanese government, not Hezbollah. So it's always been of limited utility. But first, today's afternoon spotlight.
Earlier this week, we told you that frustration with Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine appeared to be growing inside Russia's political and economic elite. Now, there are signs that frustration may be spreading beyond the Kremlin and the country's elite. Putin's approval ratings have fallen dramatically in recent months, even according to polling organizations that are closely tied to the Russian government. The state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center, for example, recently put Putin's approval at just 65 percent. Now, those are relatively paltry figures historically for the 73-year-old autocrat, down from levels approaching 90 percent, before the invasion of Ukraine. And another polling organization that conducts surveys for the Kremlin, the Public Opinion Foundation, recorded an even more striking shift. According to their survey, in July, Putin's approval fell five points in a single week, from 71 percent to 66 percent. That's the steepest drop since protests erupted over Russia's military mobilization back in 2022
And his trust numbers are slipping as well. What? People are trusting Putin? The Russian Public Opinion Research Center found that confidence in Putin fell from nearly 77 percent in June to 71 percent in its latest polling. Now, obviously, those are still numbers that most political leaders around the world would be thrilled to have. But the sharp drop in support in recent months does suggest Ukraine's summer assault on Russia's industrial engine may be shifting public sentiment against Putin and his handling of the war after more than four years of fighting.
Katerina Stepanenko, who leads the Russia team at the Institute for the Study of War, says that the real surprise is that Kremlin-aligned pollsters are acknowledging the decline at all. She told the New York Post that the numbers could reflect an attempt by people inside the Russian government to warn Putin, saying, someone is going out there to show that interest in the war is waning. And there are other indications that Putin's support may be softer than the headline approval numbers suggest. A separate survey conducted in Russia's Krasnodar and Rostov regions asked respondents a different question, which Russian politician or statesman they trusted most. Only 39 percent in Krasnodar named Putin, in Rostov it was 37 percent. Now, those figures should not be directly compared with Putin's approval rating, but taken together, analysts say the numbers provide another indication that public frustration accelerated sharply this summer, particularly as the Kremlin struggled to shield ordinary Russians from the consequences of the war. Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries and other infrastructure have contributed to fuel shortages and disruptions inside the country, while Western sanctions continue weighing on parts of the economy. As we discussed Tuesday, there are also signs of growing frustration among Russia's political and economic elite over the cost of continuing a war that has still failed to deliver many of Putin's original objectives. That said, analysts caution that there's no indication that Putin is suddenly losing his kung fu grip on power. John Hardy, deputy director of the Russia program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Post, quote, There is a strong desire to end the war, but it's not likely that this trend will lead to major unrest or a palace coup.
And there is a critical distinction we have to parse from the polling data regarding public sentiment towards the war. A majority of Russians may favor peace negotiations at this point, but the public also doesn't want Russia to accept defeat or make any major concessions to Ukraine. A recent poll captured that contradiction, with 68% of Russians continuing to support Russia's military operations in Ukraine. In other words, Putin's problem may not be that Russians are turning against the war, so much as they are increasingly impatient with how long it's taking, and they want him to find a way to decisively end the conflict on terms that Moscow can still present as a victory. Now, if mounting pressure is changing Putin's calculations, there's little evidence of that change on the battlefield. Russia launched another major attack against Ukraine overnight, killing at least three people, and on Friday, a Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine's SBU security service in central Kyiv.