> I'm sure any of the original Russian elites left that weren't brought in by Putin regret him being put there would secretly love to see him gone
Any elites that are there since before Putin, of whom there was notably more in 2012, could simply nominate someone else for the elections in 2012, or failing that, just keep that Medvedev guy for the second term. For some reason, they decided to move Medvedev away and put Putin back.
I am afraid that the set "any of the original Russian elites... that weren't brought in by Putin [and] regret him being put there" is an empty one.
The whole reason was to reset the counter of 2 consequent terms of presidency without touching the constitution since "The Party" didn't have 2/3 of parliament to be sure.
The reason for puttin' Putin was ... Putin himself. The system he finished building during the time (the shift of power and resources to capital from regions was done in 2010-11) doesn't actually work without him as a consensual figure for all "elites".
I am certain that Shoigu, or Mishustin, or Rogozhin, or the same Medvedev again, could all replace Putin just fine should a need arise. As I wrote, that would be a small change anyway, and not necessarily for the good.
Navalny, on the other hand, never had a chance, unless the vote for Russian president was done among the US voting populace. In that case, he would no doubt win a landslide victory. In Russia outside of the Moscow intellectual spheres, he's simply unknown — it's not that the people in Vorkuta hate him, they don't know who he is (was) to begin with.
In the USSR media of 1980s, there was a lot of talk of Angela Davis, she was the undoubtful "opposition leader" in the USA, as presented by Soviet media. Navalny is in the same position.
LOL. Shoigu is a PR guy, Mishustin isn't a politic by any means, Rogozin (if you've meant ex-director of Roskosmos) never was even a member of Putin's party. The common thing between all 3 is loyalty to Putin: proclaimed during 99-2000 transition, the corrupt tax service head and KGB soldier, respectively.
You're talking to a guy outside of Moscow who knew Navalny from his LiveJournal blog. Republic of Komi - the region Vorkuta is in - has 0.5% of Russia's population.
And Putin was a retired KGB officer working under Sobchak and heading the FSB when he suddenly got promoted to prime minister and then named as Yeltsin’s replacement. Not exactly a career politician either. “Putin’s party” is a misnomer, it was created out of nowhere around the guy anyway. If they chose a loyal apparatchik and put him in that place while creating a party around him once, what makes you think they can't do it again?
Any elites that are there since before Putin, of whom there was notably more in 2012, could simply nominate someone else for the elections in 2012, or failing that, just keep that Medvedev guy for the second term. For some reason, they decided to move Medvedev away and put Putin back.
I am afraid that the set "any of the original Russian elites... that weren't brought in by Putin [and] regret him being put there" is an empty one.