They've been saying for years that the West secretly despises all Russians and wants to see Russia broken up and erased as a culture.

Certainly helps the Kremlin's messaging land with Russians that EU politicians are openly holding conferences explicitly discussing how they want to balkanize Russia and steal its resources.

Putin doesn't need to rig elections (though his party very likely does do it against the communists in local and regional elections), the West's idiotic anti-Russian crusade has been the best electoral campaign he could have ever asked for. It is absolutely unsurprising to me that he has a solid 80% support now.

It also helps that things are going much better in Russia than they are in Europe at the moment. Much as i'd prefer the communists to be in charge instead, it doesn't help to delude onesself about the current mood in Russia which is overall quite optimistic.