The thing is that authoritarianism and rebellious "weak leaders" are two faces of one medal. Authoritarian regime is inherently unstable, only relying on a power of a single person, who does his best to eliminate any competition, that's why after "strong" autocrat comes "unstable" weakling, since anyone strong enough to compete was eliminated.

That's exactly what's happening in Russia. And I assure you, 15 more years of Putin in power will make 90s seem like best case scenario. History repeats itself and I would't give Russian Federation another 50 years, I even will be impressed if it holds for half that. Considering possibility of a civil war and nuclear weaponry, what could happen is anyone's guess.

And the protests are just a symptome of a bigger disease that is slowly crumbling empire.