How can you view Putin as anything other than a villain? He has destroyed his country and its future reputation and viability. The Russian federation is an extractive economy, which rode the tide of rising oil prices to temporary prosperity. It is nothing more than a gas station to the world. The prewar economy of Russia was smaller than that of Italy, or even the state of Texas in the US. It is not and has never been major player. It’s vaunted army has been proven to be an inept and corrupt paper Tiger. Putin has delusions of grandeur to reestablish a great Russian empire that never really was. His hubris and delusions know no bounds. There is absolutely nothing good to say about him. The prosperity that Russia enjoyed in the late 90s and the early 2000s was strictly due to rising prices in its extractive industries. It would have occurred no matter who was president. He and his cronies stole most of it.