[Chad C. Mulligan]

.....he had no significant following inside Russia.....

Of course, any followers who made it known would be promptly arrested and gulaged, so there's that.

[Owen]

Well, insignificance is insignificance, regardless of why.

The wiki about the upcoming election is largely pre 2022 information and propaganda is thus minimized. This guy was truly nobody.

The opponents of Putin, and they DO exist, expose him as a moderate. They are all making the case of his behavior in Ukraine being far too mild.

The reading about United Russia, formed 2001, makes it pretty clear its ideology can be described as Russian Conservatism. They are surprisingly entrepreneurial.