MOSCOW — Tatiana Bragina sighed as she examined food prices at her local supermarket in southeast Moscow.
“They seem to go up every day,” the 35-year-old housewife complained as she tallied her potential purchases on a rainy afternoon this week. “Especially for meat and fish.”
Ms. Bragina wasn’t the only one moaning.
“My salary just isn’t going as far as it used to,” said Oleg Dubov, a middle-aged office manager, as he stood in line at the cheese counter. “I’ve had to change my spending habits.”
Seven months after Russia seized Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, a combination of Western sanctions, a retaliatory Kremlin ban on the import of foodstuffs from the United States and the European Union and a steep decline in oil prices have seen Russia’s ruble plunge to a record low.
Amid the economic debacle, prices for basic foodstuffs have mounted, causing financial headaches for millions of ordinary Russians like Ms. Bragina and Mr. Dubov.
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Prices for meat and poultry rose 17 percent in Russia in September, while the cost of dairy products went up by just over 16 percent. Costs for fruits and vegetables are also on the increase, rising 6 percent in September. Inflation stands at 8 percent, its highest level for three years.
Among other bleak economic indicators, capital flight from Russia reached $85 billion in the first nine months of the year as investors fled the country in the wake of increasingly tougher Western sanctions.
When asked who they blame, however, neither Ms. Bragina nor Mr. Dubov held Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for the soaring cost of living.
Ms. Bragina was unsure of the exact causes behind the dramatic price increases, while Mr. Dubov said he believes the U.S. is unhappy at “Russia’s growing global influence” and is attempting to “put us in our place.”
These attitudes are reflected in public opinion polls here. Mr. Putin’s approval ratings top 80 percent, while the Kremlin’s ban on Western food products has received the support of almost 60 percent of the country, according to a survey carried out this month by the independent, Moscow-based Levada-Center pollster.
In another opinion poll carried out by the Levada-Center this month, 59 percent of respondents said they are not concerned by Russia’s growing international isolation.
Public opinion has been shaped in no small measure by an aggressive, at times hysterical, state media propaganda campaign that gained speed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March.
Mr. Putin’s foes routinely are referred to by state television as “national traitors.” President Obama was likened this week to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a prime-time news program hosted by Dmitry Kiselev, the virulently anti-Western journalist who heads Russia’s main state-run news agency, Rossiya Segodnya.
Earlier this year, Mr. Kiselev reminded his nationwide audience that Russia is the only country in the world with the ability to turn the United States into “radioactive dust.”
“State media was no less aggressive during the Soviet period,” said Lyudmila Alexeeva, a renowned Soviet-era dissident. “And the objective is the same: to rally the people around their leaders against a supposed external enemy.”
In an indication of the level of public anger whipped up toward Kremlin critics, an opposition activist was wounded in a knife attack in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar this week after passers-by took objection to a “Putin — quit!” sign in his car window.
Mr. Putin’s approval ratings, which hit a record low in 2013, have been significantly boosted by the wave of patriotism that has engulfed Russia since the start of the conflict in Ukraine earlier this year.
Western powers accuse Russia of supplying troops and weapons to pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine, a charge the Kremlin denies. Mr. Putin has admitted, however, that the heavily armed men who swept into Crimea ahead of its annexation were Russian troops.
“They [world leaders] have always begun wars to increase their popularity,” Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said in a rare interview with the slon.ru website earlier this month. “Putin hasn’t thought up anything new. He is distracting us all from Russia’s internal problems.”
Mr. Navalny has been under house arrest since February on fraud charges he says are “revenge” for his political activities. He faces up to 10 years behind bars if found guilty.
Mr. Navalny’s persecution comes amid an unprecedented crackdown on dissent that has seen opposition figures jailed or forced to flee Russia. Opposition-friendly websites also have been blocked as the Kremlin looks to tighten its control over the Internet.
For now, at least, Mr. Putin’s tactics appear to be working.
“It could be a number of years before we see any open, large-scale discontent,” said Stanislav Belkovsky, a former Kremlin adviser who now heads the Institute for National Strategy, a Moscow-based think tank.
“Some Russians are ready to accept poorer living standards during what they see as a confrontation with the United States,” Mr. Belkovsky said. “Others may grumble in their kitchens but will go on supporting Putin in opinion polls and at elections, either due to fear or the simple lack of an alternative.”
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