Why is Putin worse than Gorbachev, who Reagan made friends with?
Easy question. Gorbachev didn’t threaten nuclear war or invade multiple countries while murdering thousands.
Ironically, Gorbachev himself has repeatedly warned the West that they risk igniting a nuclear war with their duplicity on Ukraine and specifically calls out the United States for its reversion to narrow minded cold war propaganda in place of diplomacy.
Hopefully Trump and Tillerson will change all that with a practical reset of US/RF relations.