What you mean by "politically" though? Politics as it is understood on the West - like people arguing in public about the best ways for society to solve their p

What you mean by "politically" though? Politics as it is understood on the West - like people arguing in public about the best ways for society to solve their problems and to figure out the how the society should be managed - does not exist in Russia. It used to, but not anymore. This is something you can get in jail for. There's only one "correct" opinion about things - the one that the TV tells you - and if you deviate from it in any way, you are a traitor (and if you get popular, you go to jail). So you can't be "politically active" in Russia in Western sense, at least not for long. With that, Russia has different kind of "politics", commonly known in those who witnesses the USSR or any other totalitarian dictatorship - in the form of constantly inundating the subject's mind in state propaganda and things the state propaganda feels important, and constantly requiring the subjects to participate in rituals and declarations that emphasize agreement and alignment with this propaganda. If you do not participate, you are suspect - nothing serious would likely happen to you, unless you start doing Western-style politics, but you're not one of the good people anymore. And your co-worker may write a donos on you to get a promotion ahead of you, or something like that. But most people would participate in it, many - gladly, because that's what all good people do and who doesn't want to be among good people doing good things together? That's the kind of "politics" that you'd find everywhere. Oh and about influencing - I don't think anybody seriously thinks they can influence Putin's circle in any way, at least not among common people. It's just a lot of people there like it this way - the Tsar knows what to do and he does it, and our part is to support him whatever happens.