“...It’s spent billions in recent years building churches...”
In Ukraine, the people are allowed to build churches, even Baptist churches. You sound like Pablo Escobar’s mother defending the Medellin drug cartel chief. She said, “He built parks and did things for the people.” And you gloss over Putin’s murders and invasions the same way, saying he passes laws that his Islamist contingents approve of. In fact, Ukraine is fighting a coalition of Mohammedans organized by Putin and we can see those Mohammedan mercenaries today occupying the Donbas and backing up Russian soldiers who are not motivated to fight without Chechens and other mercs from far-flung parts of the “Federation” keeping guns pointed at their backs.
The anti-LGBT stuff that Putin spouts is his beard for Moscow’s pedophile rings in addition to winning favor with Mohammedans. Boris Nemtsov was exposing many things about Putin. He was murdered before he could expose more. But we do have that video of Putin lifting the shirt of a boy so he could kiss his bare skin. Most of us find that more than just troubling.