You know how pretty much everyone is convinced that the Russian electoral and parliamentary system is fake, right. Well, duh. But there are two important points.

First, if it's fake, and Putin is running a "turbo-giga-hyper-dictatorship", why bother spending billions on fake elections and political parties? Before 2022, and especially before 2014, the liberal answer would have been: "umm they're just trying to deceive the West". But now, as the most sanctioned country on Earth, what would such "fakery" realistically achieve? You can answer that for yourself.

Second, you know how the American two-party system is structured, right. Two parties, "Demonrats" and "Republitards," fighting like HELL, foaming at the mouth over how to maintain the status quo, defend Israel and bomb Russia. Well, Russian parties seem to be almost the complete inversion of that.

On the surface, the Russian Communist Party (CPRF) is pretty meek and agreeable with the Kremlin. But look at its program and statements, and you'll find that many of its members are, in fact, unironic Marxist-Leninists. They actually believe in and propose nationalizing "oligarchic assets" i.e. large private companies, among other things, positions that are completely at odds with the United Russia party line.

So, compared to the US, Russia is a very real democracy, and that's not necessarily a good thing.