A communist regime by any other name?

So Gazprom and Rosneft are going to merge (these are the two giant oil companies of Russia with incredibly strong ties to the government). However, there will be some limited trading of the shares of Gazprom now (though it sounds like very limited trading). Gazprom makes a lot of profits for the Russian government right now, and is one of the reasons why the economy is doing so relatively well (relative at least for Russia). But is the strong connection to the Kremlin a good thing for Russia's economy in the long term. The strange part is the fact that the former Yuko's subsidiary, Yugansk, which is the center of much of the controversy is not part of this merger. The chaos of the Yuko's ordeal (in which the majority shareholder was imprisoned unfairly for playing politics) would seem turn many investors away from Russia, will this new merger bring in new capital or will more needed capital flee Russia? They don't pay me enough to answer the hard questions. But I'd bet this is not a good thing for either Russia's economy (a too strong reliance of the government on oil revenues) or for the future of democracy in Russia, but only time will tell.

So the TV stations are controlled by the Kremlin, the Gas and Oil industries are controlled by the government, and second/third parties are being pushed out of the political system. How democratic is Russia?