The 90s seem like they were a pretty terrible time in Russia--the economy crashed and Russia lost its international influence and prestige. Were many Russians nostalgic for the days of the Soviet union? How did the new government maintain control--is there evidence that the elections were rigged? Or was there some benefit to the reforms during the nineties which made the new government enjoy popular support in spite of the terrible economy?
Yeltsin “Reforms” were so successful and popular that Putin’s administration later had to drop the very word “reforms” to describe its actions for quite a long time.
Mr. Medvedev Russia’s Prime-Minister and former President (2008-2012) admitted in February 2012 at his meeting with non-parliamentary parties’ leaders that Zyuganov had actually won presidential elections in 1996. But as the press started quoting his statement he was soon forced to repudiate it. Similar statement was also made in 2016 by the former Minister of the Interior A.Kulikov (1995-1998).
After bloody suppression of non-loyal Parliament in 1993 Yeltsin got a new constitution adopted, that granted him extensive power and effectively destroyed real mechanisms to control the President. Political forces of the nationalist platform, either left or right, were winning all parliamentary elections but that had negligible impact on actual government policy.
Russia’s Prosecutor General Y.Skuratov (1995-1999), who tried to initiate impeachment procedure had to step down once porn-tape, featuring him with prostitutes, was aired in prime-time on central TV-channels. Really dangerous Yeltsin’s opponents were simply routinely murdered like general Lev Rokhlin, who was preparing a military coup. His wife, Tamara Rokhlina, was sentenced for this crime despite no evidence. The court also simply disregarded three burned corpses of the likely killers found in a forest near the crime scene.
As for presidential elections campaign in 1996, it was a mere joke. In compliance with subreddit's rules I can not testify as a living witness, but you may retrieve any TV-guide and news-clips from this period and see that Russian TV-channels that were all owned by Yeltsin’s oligarchs aired daily almost entirely movies, describing crimes of the Soviet regime, and newsblocks mocking patriots.
So in practice Russians were just denied any form of political representation beyond useless Parliament. Not to mention that people who have to survive under really dire circumstances have very limited opportunities to participate in politics.
As far as I know no major concerns were voiced by the western elite and mass media, except for oppression of Chechen “freedom-fighters”.