Like anyone with even cursory knowledge of the farce that has been Turmp and Republicans treachery didn't know this. Its a shame that conservatives minds are so rotted that this still won't matter to them.
Elections in Russia are a scripted reality show. There is no government, there is only Bratva. They have a shadow economy that's entirely off the books. Given the shape of their public economy, does anyone really think they could run the military operations they do?
What military operations? You mean their slapdash dumbass bumblefuck invasion of Ukraine after their sham intelligence propped up corrupt government fell apart? Their Syrian operations aren't exactly cutting edge either.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with most of your commentary (certainly their elections are a sham, and certainly Putin is desperate to keep propping up their backchannel corruption that frankly is bigger than them - as evidenced with the Panama Papers and plenty other, this is a serious issue everywhere in the world although I'm sure that the Russians are especially focused on it).
My point is, Russia's military might is all smoke and mirrors bullshit. Sure they still have nukes (although I'm actually starting to doubt how strong of force they have there, hell the US' stuff is rotting and we still have active measures for handling them, and Russia really let themselves go), and they're not quite at the level of Iran showing off a papier-mache stealth jet fighter (their new tank that they showed off = and broke down during the parade - I'm sure was at least made of metal and used actual tank gear), but their ability to wage actual warfare I think just isn't there. They do a lot to try and pretend it still is, flying their what 70 year old bear bombers, and their military parades, and fake press releases about supersonic torpedoes and warp drive submarines, but there's multiple countries that could single-handedly embarrass Russia in a conventional war (and pretty much none of them would be doing so alone). The US military would fucking obliterate Russia's, it would probably be on the level of the first Iraq War (keep in mind, at the time, Soviet stuff that Saddam was using was considered quite comparable or at least far more competitive with the US', and Saddam had what the 4th largest military of the time? In that span, Russia's has dwindled and is full of young chucklefucks that would rather show off on social media than learn proper training, and the US has been spending 2/3 of a trillion dollars per year for the nearly 30 years since then). That's why they're deliberately trying to find advantages in the digital realm and waging their psy-ops program to undermine other countries.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not itching for actual war with Russia, and the US has shown our military is fully capable of its own stupendous blunders in handling an outmatched foe. Just that, I don't get this weird fear of Russian military that people seem to have. Full stop, the bigger concern is that dealing with Russia seriously would create an energy crisis in Europe due to Russia trying to play hostage with their natural gas exports which make up a very sizable amount of Europe's energy (although that is working on being adjusted specifically because they recognize that having such a critical aspect beholden to a foreign state that is showing itself to be very aggressive in trying to destabilize others).
