Are elections truly free in many places?

[Jason]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/14/europe/putin-russia-election-explainer-update-intl/index.html

In the article, which is the same one from another Russia post, we can see that the opposition is highly oppressed. In that case, how can we say Russians are truly hearing more than one side of the story? I mean, there isn't even one anti-war candidate running it seems like.