No it is not, Russians have a different mentality. Putin is stability, if they could somehow make him live another 100 years they would allow him to stay in pow

No it is not, Russians have a different mentality. Putin is stability, if they could somehow make him live another 100 years they would allow him to stay in power unless he makes a major mistake. In Russia you never know what chaos might come next. Before Putin there was Jelzin who oversaw one of the worst periods for ordinary Russians after the second world war. People are frightened at the prospect of what might come after Putin. There is a lot of media available that attacks Putin relentlessly but people themselves see them as traitors. It's not my opinion but it certainly is the opinion of the majority there. Like I said, different mentality, if a leader brings stability they rally behind him and (in an almost paranoid way) see behind every critic a traitor that is colluding with foreign powers. It's been like that for centuries. Edit: One thing that certainly doesn't help with having a strong opposition is the fact that every single opposition leader since Putin came into power has been caught having secret meetings with the US ambassador. I have no clue how they can believe that this will help in any way. It sometimes seems like the US ambassador in Russia is only there to collaborate with Russian opposition. Imagine how that looks to ordinary Russians. Or how would it look to you if all of the US opposition would regularly meet with Russian or Chinese officials to get support?