But who are these opponents and would they stand a chance in a 'free and fair election'? If you really look into why and who these people are, the reason Putin goes hard on them is because they are likely mostly shells propped up by American and British intelligence services. I'm not going to argue that it's the correct way to deal with them, but generally speaking it serves as a warning. Don't deal with Western intelligence services and we will leave you alone. The former communist party operates electorally unscathed, if unpopular, as do several further right-wing parties who have been incredibly critical of Putin's Ukriane invasion (in that they want even further commitment of troops), even other members of the liberal opposition operate unimpeded, as long as they aren't directly involved with the West. However, more problematic than that is that the oligarchs control the media, even the opposition media, so creating any kind of real change in status quo between worker and bourgeoisie is going to be an uphill slog.

I agree that Russia has huge problems with the arbitrary prosecution of gay and lgbt activists. However, members of the protest group Pussy Riot were given light sentences that, if they had done the same actions (namely having public sex in a church) in the U.S. they would not only face up to 20 years of prison, but also mandatory sex offender registration, and likely a lengthy probation. Both Russia and the U.S. are incredibly arbitrary in their prosecutions and laws around these social things.

Russia is not a country that I would personally want to live in. However, portraying it as some sort of backwards nation of despots and savages is incredibly inaccurate. They are an oligarchic capitalist nation with huge interests in promoting their local bourgeoisie at the expense of foreign capital interests.