E.L.D. Cornerstone.  Life in words & pictures

March 29, 2015

Fifteen years ago, Vladimir Putin was elected promising to make Russia strong again: a country its citizens could be proud of and that the world would respect.

This week, Russia's main polling agency measured his support rating at 85%.

While opinion polls do not tell the full story in a country where much of the media is under state control, Mr Putin's enduring popularity is undeniable.

"Russia and Putin go together, we just don't see another way," says Oleg Sokolov, a member of the latest pro-Putin youth group known as Set', or "Network".

Set' has its headquarters in a converted Moscow gas tower. The office resembles an internet start-up or a PR firm, strewn with bright-coloured bean bags and dotted with young Russians eating sushi or browsing their iPads.

But the brand they're promoting is Vladimir Putin: his image is plastered all over the walls alongside signs reminding Russians of what makes their country great.

'Not ashamed anymore'

The group won't comment on any formal links to the Kremlin but their passion for the cause is clearly genuine.

"Putin is a strong leader, I'd say the strongest in the world right now," Oleg says.

President Putin is plastered on the walls of the office of youth group Set'

He recalls Boris Yeltsin's rule following the Soviet collapse as a time of chaos and humiliation, not the dawn of democracy.

Though he barely reached his teens in the 1990s, the activist talks of "begging" the IMF for funds then and being forced to endure the drunken antics of Mr Putin's predecessor.

"With Yeltsin, I was ashamed that he ran my country. But with Putin, I'm not ashamed anymore."

Mr Putin was pictured taking part in a judo training session in December 2010

A former KGB spy, President Putin's image as a man of action has long been part of his appeal. It is carefully maintained through photo shoots: bare-chested on horseback, or tossing opponents onto a judo mat.

But his policy also resonates.

Last week, Russia marked a year since the annexation of Crimea. The move has been widely supported here, despite the heavy financial burden it brings - that was when Vladimir Putin's popularity rating topped 80% for the first time.

Loudly condemned in the West as illegal, in Russia the annexation is presented as reversing the "unjust" transfer of the peninsula to Soviet Ukraine in 1954.

Some also clearly revel in a post-Soviet Moscow starting to flex its political muscle.