During his presidency, he has been a member of the Unity party and the United Russia party. He is also affiliated with the People's Front, a group of supporters that Putin organized in 2011 to help improve the public's perception of United Russia.[2] His political ideology, priorities and policies are sometimes referred to as Putinism.
Putin has enjoyed high domestic approval ratings[disputed – discuss] throughout the majority of his presidency, with the exception of 2011–2013 which is likely due to the 2011–2013 Russian protests.[3][4][5] In 2007, he was Time magazine's Person of the Year.[6] In 2015, he was designated No. 1 in Time 100, Time magazine's list of the top 100 most influential people in the world.[7] From 2013 to 2016, he was designated No. 1 on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People.[8] The Russian economy and standard of living grew rapidly during the early period of Putin's regime, fueled largely by a boom in the oil industry.[9][10][11] However, lower oil prices and sanctions for Russia's annexation of Crimea led to recession and stagnation in 2015 that has persisted into the present day.[12] Political freedoms have been sharply curtailed,[13][14][15] leading to widespread condemnation from human rights groups,[16][17][18][19] as well as Putin being described as a dictator since 2022.[20][21][22]
^McKew, Molly K. (1 January 2017). "Putin's Real Long Game". Politico Magazine. Retrieved 30 January 2017.