Yes, voting is a thing in Russia. No, you won't find yourself in Siberian Gulag (what is it?). Just because most of Russia citizens chose Putin doesn't mean that there's something wrong with voting. He's considered by most people as best president of Russia since Stalin, so it shouldn't be a surprise that Russian people like him (and, of course, enemy governments trying to paint him black, because he's not bowing before them anymore).

IT crowd, of course, won't agree. Well, too bad, because minority does not dictate to majority in democracy. Before US elections it was hard to find anyone who would be pro-Trump, everyone was liberal. It gave the impression that Clinton should have 99% of votes. Well, it didn't work that way, it turned out that there are a lot of citizens who voted for Trump, even if they didn't post a lot on hacker news. It's the same with Putin. Older people vote for him. Government and state workers vote for him. Businessmen vote and support him. Of course few loud liberals will shout everywhere about unfair elections, but it doesn't mean that they are really unfair. Putin's support is enormous in Russia, like it or not. You may call it brainwash or whatever, it won't help. There's no other leader who worth a vote.

Sorry, I hate political posts, but such naiveté makes me cry. No, there are no Gulags in Russia, if you really think this way, your brain was washed by western propaganda even more than average Russian's brain.

You're being downvoted because most people that don't know Russia's post USSR history blindly follow the propaganda without questioning why many blue collar Russians would actually be pro-Putin.

Or because people see Stalin as Hitler' buddy. Even in ironic way, Putin is nowhere near close to Stalin.

Yeah, modern methods are easier on people. They just rig election results and prosecute opposition candidates nowadays. Common folk can do whatever as long, as they don't protest too loud.