Putin might win; Putin's party ("United Russia") is not so popular, has a lot of negative opinions, has dubious people (e.g. a government official having lot of

Putin might win; Putin's party ("United Russia") is not so popular, has a lot of negative opinions, has dubious people (e.g. a government official having lot of expensive real estate which cannot be bought with their declared income), has lot of people who are incompetent and who are kept for their loyality. If they could win easily, why would they falsify election results or ban opposition candidates? They don't want to play fair. This is actually a problem for Putin, that he has certain popularity and trust, but it isn't transferred to people from his party, to governors etc.