Two Russian pollsters put trust in Vladimir Putin at 69% and 73.3% this week, steady readings a month before September's State Duma election.

The Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) found that 69% of Russians trust Putin and 70% think he is doing his job well as head of state, in a survey of 1,500 people carried out on August 7-9. Government activity was backed by 45% of respondents and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin by 52%, TASS reported.

The state-run Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) put trust at 73.3% and approval at 67% in a separate poll of 1,600 adults taken on August 3-8. Its respondents approved of the government's performance by 44.5% and Mishustin's work by 44.8%, with 55.7% saying they trust him.

On the parties, FOM has United Russia at 37%, the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party both at 11%, New People at 5% and A Just Russia at 4%. VCIOM has United Russia at 34%, the Communists at 12.3%, the LDPR at 10.1%, New People at 8.7% and A Just Russia at 4.8%. VCIOM also measured trust in the party leaders: Gennady Zyuganov on 31.5%, Sergey Mironov on 27.5%, Leonid Slutsky on 21.8% and Alexey Nechayev on 10.7%.

The number worth watching is not Putin's. September's vote is the first national election since the war economy began squeezing household budgets, and United Russia sitting in the mid-30s is a weaker starting position than the party is used to defending. The 4.3-point gap between two state-adjacent pollsters asking the same question in the same week is a useful reminder of how much give there is in any of these figures.

The campaign is already largely settled in the Kremlin's favour. More than half of Russians have already decided how they will vote, and the Kremlin has lowered its own turnout targets for the election. The reading in May was that United Russia will win, but that the sands are shifting under its feet.

Independent and opposition-aligned outlets have painted a softer picture of the same summer. Ukrainska Pravda reported a record-low 66% rating for Putin in July, and Meduza reported at the start of that month that his approval was falling at its fastest pace since the full-scale invasion began.

Neither of this week's polls suggests September will be difficult for the Kremlin. Both suggest United Russia will be leaning on the machinery rather than the mood.