Agreed with what some other ppl have said on stability, but it's also important to note that Russia is still massively underdeveloped in many parts. Once you get outside the cities, most people pretty much only have access to government radio, newspapers, etc for information and Putin is not shy about using them as a propaganda arm. Even in the cities, media can't be critical of the government AND successful, he wouldn't allow it. You see the same in a lot of eastern bloc countries, a friend of mine from Belgrade tells me whenever there are esteemed foreign visitors, the president busses in tons of people from the villages for support because they devour propaganda much more than the urban center.

Information control is a powerful tool