There are lots of good reasons to like Putin, but he owns this catastrophe, brought about by his paramilitary goons.
You can be sure today Putin is studying the US response to the Iran Air shootdown by USS Vincennes. We paid reparations. I believe there was an expression of regret, but no admission of fault. Captain and crew came out of the investigation clean and got the usual medals at the end of their tour of duty. Eight months later the captain was transferred to a shore assignment. Perhaps he was seen to be imprudent and needlessly provocative (as alleged by the commander of another US warship). In any case, he never commanded a ship again and retired two years later.
What are these good reasons to like Putin?
He's basically retarded any chance that any sort of real representative, democratically minded government can take hold in Russia. He is acting, at best, as a strategic adversary towards us throughout much of the world. He seems to believe it was a great tragedy that the USSR collapsed, which doesn't bode well for what he thinks Russia ought to look like in the future - and whether it should attempt to re-assemble it's empire of the unwilling. Putin is investing lots of money to make a larger fraction of his military 1st world quality, which rightly terrifies the USSR's former occupied satellite states such as Poland, Latvia, etc. He uses his veto (along with China) to block us on the UN Security Council at every turn - whether we are dealing with some North Korea provocation or just about anything else.
I'm just not seeing all that many good reasons to like Putin. I think he's smart, we have been able to cooperate with him on more things than many people may think, he seems to be positioning himself as some kind of defender of traditionalist values (though it's hard to tell whether this is anything more than an act), etc.
Overall, Putin is probably going to wind up having been a net negative for the Russian people and the rest of the world.
You can be sure today Putin is studying the US response to the Iran Air shootdown by USS Vincennes.
Well, I guess the reminder that we've done it too is fair game. Actually, to be really fair, Russia is likely once removed from this Malaysian shoot-down and we weren't with the Iranian Airbus. Additionally, the hyperbole of this being a terrorist attack is silly, nobody meant to shoot this down as it severely damages the separatists and Putin's cause. Still, they did it and ultimately the blame does rest with Putin for choosing to fund and arm this bunch of goons as you correctly put it.
And nine months after the Iran Air shootdown the Captain’s family minivan was bombed with his wife driving. The AP reported that the FBI had ruled out terrorist activity.