There are big differences between these positions. You view so simplistic that it is completely false.
But do we really have to call such a system democracy anymore?
So long as Russia has elections for the executive and legislative branches according to the French model, it is a representative republic by the definition. If Russia moves toward Spanish model it will be a constitutional monarchy. Before the democratic revolution of 1917 (the one which led to disaster and Bolshevik coup d'etat) Russia had mixed system of traditional and constitutional monarchy.
Aha, and Rome under Julius Caesar was a republic too. By name.