As I ve already said there was a similar drop in Putin s popularity before the 2004 elections so that s not a new story Reflecting in the lead every up and down in Putin s ratings is a heavy WP RECENTISM and WP Undue weight Also as was already said in the discussions above there are different explanations to the booing story reflecting them all means putting too much weight to this trivial event while not reflecting them means non neutral coverage At the same event Putin was applauded and it is not clear who was the person the booing was directed at It s a sign of bias and yellow press style and it s quite a pity that BBC and likes put so much attention to this episode Note that Putin s popularity started decline before that event and while I don t know the latest opinion polls it is clear that if the popularity goes up that would be against the theory that that episode was somehow significant while if the popularity goes down that would be likely connected to the elections story rather than to some trivial episodes Talk