I personally DO believe that Putin would have won without cheating.
If cheating took place it's really rather sad and pathetic.

The situation with overexposure of Putin in TV is an issue, isn't it?
But there are plenty of privately owned channels in Russia, aren't there? How come they also support Putin?

In Sweden, the almost uninterrupted rule of the Social democrats ended when privately owned TV channels were allowed - those channels immediately started (subtly) supporting parties more to the right of the political scale. By the time SD realised their "mistake", it was already too late to change. But it shows how enormously influential terrestrial TV is.

Interesting that the BBC talks a lot about Alexei Navalny - who nobody on Masterrussian likes. Yet, Navalny is presented as a hero of democracy.