VLADIMIR Putin may be facing arrest for war crimes in the West but the dictator's popularity has rarely been so high in Russia - or America.
According to the Levada Center - the Russia-based independent research centre branded a "foreign agent" by the Kremlin - more than eight in 10 Russians (83%) approve of Putin.
That has increased from 71% who approved of the Russian leader before the invasion of Ukraine.
That means Putin is significantly more popular now than before his disastrous "special operation", which has seen around 100,000 Russian soldiers killed or wounded since December alone according to American estimates.
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