Most of Europe doesn't see Putin as a dictator - that's just some hysterical nonsense the US mainstream media likes to peddle.. Americans gotta have an enemy figure to fixate on!
Eastern or Western?
I've never understood why Putin is singled out by the media for such vicious treatment when, as you yourself pointed out, there is absolutely no shortage of political corruption stories they could run with.
Still, it's a lot easier for the American public to swallow that a man half a world away, from a traditional enemy figure, could be evil and corrupt, rather than examine the fact that some of their own representatives might be the same. No no, that would throw into question their belief that American is the worlds shining bastion of freedom and democracy, a notion that they've been spoon-fed since childhood.
How many political opponents has Clinton had murdered?