It's good old fashioned Soviet style of control. The Russian people have never really known a liberal democracy to compare it to, but plenty of oppression where Putin's control seems a little more free than the Soviet flavour of oppression.
The young generation of Russia have however tasted a good bit of western lifestyle thanks to social media which is of course currently being curtailed.

Churchill stated 'Jaw, Jaw, not War, War', which sounds good, but war has broken out and people are being killed and wounded. Imagine that the war stops by middle of next week. What of the Russian wounded in years to come?
Names on war monuments are known to just a few however 'fucked up' service personnel wandering around with bits missing and destroyed minds remind society of the war for decades.
Back to your comment...
It is a big risk for example imposing a no fly zone over Ukraine and being active in knocking down their aircraft. But we couldn't stop there. NATO would have to control Russian anti-air and cruise missile assets along the borders too.
MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction, this was the key to stopping war between the WARPAC and NATO, but what happens if someone calls the bluff of the system as Putin has done?
Terrifyingly NATO and ideally the UN stand up to the bullying of Putin and put lives where our mouths are. People will die, but they are now anyway so what's the difference?
The cost is human life.

@Sofabeast Nah. We could easily bomb Putin into submission without ever putting boots on the ground.

@CourtJester A recent assessment of UKs air defences (10th March 2022) indicated that there is woefully insufficient assets to defend the east coast of the UK if a no fly zone was set up, forcing the UK to withdraw from operations.
Given that could the USA still bomb Russia into submission? Bombing Russian military assets would cause retaliatory attacks at least across Europe and possibly even Alaska.
How quick Russia could respond to NATO/American air assault I do not know, but I imagine given a conventional exchange NATO could face around 2-5% front losses in the first five days with Russia being subjected to at least 50% leaving ground forces feeling very naked as remaining NATO airpower begin to swat ground targets such as artillery and supply troops.
Then what about that little bit of Russia tucked away on the Baltic coast?
Now on the 11th March 2022, Russia is to begin employing middle eastern volunteers.

@Sofabeast They do assessments like that to support what they want the narrative to be. If they wanted to go to war; they’d put out an assessment saying how sting they are.
My marine battalion did drills with the UK a few times. If the UK wanted to, they could take out Russia on their own.
Hack them and block communications, bomb ground to air batteries from stealth fighters and missiles from ships, then bomb out their military bases simultaneously. Maybe hit the Kremlin just for fun.
Given a good organized strike; Putin would give up within 24 hours if hit right. Australia could do it if they timed and coordinated everything right.