1. Stop claiming that Putin limits the freedom of speech in Russia. Yes, main TV channels don't promote ideas against Putin, but we have TV debates which (at least the ones I've seen) aren't biased for or against the government, and show the situation how it really is. Then we have other channels like Dozhd' (literally Rain) who are mostly anti-government, and they continue existing without real problems.Then we have newspapers (a lot of them), and there are quite a lot of anti-government ones available (like Soviet Russia, for example). Then there we have Internet access, and Internet isn't censored. Russia does have the freedom of speech.
2. Stop claiming that Putin is an authoritarian ruler/autocratic leader/dictator/etc. Putin doesn't wield absolute authority: his power is limited by constitution (and these limitations do work); Russia isn't even a presidential republic - it's a president-parliamentary republic, so Putin doesn't control the executive branch; freedom of speech is here, and people aren't sent to jail for disagreeing with him (and if you claim they are, then give me a list of names); every year there is a direct line, and Putin responds to all kinds of questions, and almost every single problem Putin responds to during the several hours long direct line gets solved by the next month (do you fellow Americans have anything like that?). Maybe you are confusing "dictatorship" with "being a very popular leader".
tl;dr: stop using clichés.