For us it is about not letting him continue to become more powerful. So let's say Putin supplies all the heat to an EU country and a global issue is out there. The country may have to choose between letting their citizens go without heat or joining us on the issue.
Make no mistake, Putin looks good today but he is not a nice person at all. He who controls the energy source of a country controls most of what they do.
Putin wants to take down NATO. Since the days of Izzy, it has been east-west power struggles.
As far as I'm concerned, a NATO that will let an Obama use it to attack a country unassociated with its charter to install a Muslim government in a North African country is a NATO that doesn't have a reason to exist any more. Especially a NATO that can be so easily controlled by a Muslim pretender President for so preposterous a reason. Not a fluke, either, this understudy role as reports had Kerry/Obama considering a NATO redux in Syria at one point. Yes, Putin is a hard liner and he'd like to see NATO go. Truthfully, I don't care about EU - it is going to be Muslim in a generation anyway. Our real problem here in the US isn't Putin; it is Obama and the ultimate control he wants to obtain over our lives.