Actually we simply see that natural order is reasserting itself after dormancy under liberal governance.
What Russia does in it’s hemisphere is between Russia and the people on that side of the pond to work out amongst themselves. The only people manipulated/doing the manipulating are those trying to stop terrorists from being killed via pacifist BS.
Putin is what Putin is. Until he flies Bears and Blackjecks here and bombs us, what he does to terrorists is his concern. We can applaud him when he does the correct thing.
Historical analogy isn't hard to find. He isn't half the devil Josef Stalin was, yet Allied leaders worked with Stalin against Hitler. Americans risked death to send aid to a nation run by a dictator who had arranged the Holodomor only a decade before. Stalin was in a class by himself, as mass murderers go.