Yekaterina Duntsova, a former journalist and city councillor campaigning for peace and "democratic processes", was rejected by the Russian Central Electoral Committee as a potential candidate due to "errors in documents".
-It’s easier for actual democratic leaders to work with Putin, since it’s hard (and not in their interest) to actually proof the election fraud. Working with dictators does not look very good for them.
-It gives Putin an idea how many people support him and which parts of Russia might be more against him to estimate where an uprising could happen.
-Some people think the elections are real, which increases support for him by a bit.
-To measure the popularity of political opponents (better get rid of them if they start becoming popular)
A few reasons I can think of:
-It’s easier for actual democratic leaders to work with Putin, since it’s hard (and not in their interest) to actually proof the election fraud. Working with dictators does not look very good for them.
-It gives Putin an idea how many people support him and which parts of Russia might be more against him to estimate where an uprising could happen.
-Some people think the elections are real, which increases support for him by a bit.
-To measure the popularity of political opponents (better get rid of them if they start becoming popular)