There are two kinds of people in regards to this. Those who look at specific positions and with an non biased approach can agree with something a foe actually does right. And then there are the Putinista's who, for whatever reason, have chosen to firmly align themselves with a former KGB agent who thinks the loss of the USSR was a great tragedy. The former are being intellectual honest on a case by case basis but haven't lost sight of the big picture, the latter have somehow lost all perspective and in many cases are buying into a bunch of nutty conspiracy theories.
I am well aware there is a small contingent of Putinista's here, of which you are one. Most have just lost the plot. Perhaps the fact that their hero, Putin, is now ultimately responsible for the murder of 298 innocent passengers of a civilian airliner may change a few of their minds.
We’ll see how things play out. I think a lot of the admiration for him is based on who our leader is and how much we despise him. Put in a Ted Cruz (or Sarah) type and I suspect most of the glowing assessments would probably go away.
There are a few that just fall all over themselves when they meet a strong man type, almost like a cult reaction, perhaps it is Putin’s determined homoerotic campaign where he poses both shirtless and in various costumes, as the hero of all kinds of posed photos from space to hunting and horse riding, and heroism, etc.
When you see a large collection of them and the absurdity of them, it isn’t difficult to know what kind of men he was trying to win to devote themselves to him, very impressionable men, hungry for a man to follow.