So they care about turnout? Thank you, that was my point.

I accept your concession, despite your tangential, bad-faith gotcha about "legitimacy."

But the fact that governments care about turnout and election results is something that's not really in dispute.

Insomuch as to create plausible deniability of the results. The votes themselves don't mean a damn; they can always change it to whatever they like. The fact that Russian citizens don't have the option to abstain and are forced to participate in a humiliation ritual doesn't change that.

To quote u/GamingTheSystem-01, which sparked this asinine "discussion":

What do you expect them to do if they don't approve?

They, the Russian citizens, won't do shit. That's what they'll do. Russian citizens won't vote their way out of this. Is that autistic enough detail enough for you?

Again, do better.