20% is not "barely any support". 1 in 5 Russians vote reliably Communist. In fact, if you read the acccounts of the 1999 and 2000 elections in Russia, the Western powers were really worried that the Communists would come back into power. That was why they backed Putin so heavily - he was an avowed ANTI-communist.

Forgive my saying so, but your views are decidedly Western. It seems that you would not consider elections in Russia to be fair unless the winner won by a margin of 50.1% to 49.9%, because that is what we have been conditioned to consider "proper" and "legitimate".

In other words, tp be democratic, a country has to be divided.

Why is that? Could it be that for the corporate oligarchy, "divide and conquer" is the best strategy?

`You are throwing around wildly irresponsible and undocumented statements, like "closer to real democracy".

I honestly don't think you know what democracy is, except in the US context.

Look, in Putin's first election, he only got 53% of the vote, and the Communist candidate got 30%. Does that seem more like "real" democracy to you?