Not that easy, since they got arrested in no time.
It's so easy to dictate a country when you have the money, the right friends & the army behind you.
Far from dictator and even if he was what you say would be true only If gone by North Korea route.
But bear in mind, Russia has been extensively developed in the past 10 years. For that you have to make the absolute right decisions; how to allocate the limited money from budget in projects that give the most out of them etc.
I'm sure you remember how it was in the 90's before Putin and after the dissolution of USSR.... people didn't even receive their small wages as factory managers stole it all.... Now Russia is almost the biggest car market in Europe, suggesting that normal people finally begin to have money for normal living.