The entire point of this topic has been lost. Every point Putin made was false and nothing more than a distraction from the real subject, his move to dictatorship. It's about central control v. local control.
For the record,a Democracy and Republic are not the same thing at all. London's mayor is now on equal footing with Putin??? And our electoral college exists for a reason-- to discourage a centralization of power-- the complete opposite of what Putin is doing. So how does it justify his seizing more power????
We are a democratic republic - we have a mixed system of direct elections by the people (demos) and representative govt. (republic). In some states we have democrativ vote by the people for propositions to be made into law - classic law making by direct democracy. So you are wrong there as well.
The electoral college exists to prevent a president elected by the great unwashed. The Founding Fathers did not trust the people.
Get your history right and go read the Federalist Papers.