I'm sorry -- but Putin employs professional trolls to comment, often in teams of 2 or 3, often speaking amongst themselves to first divert and then control the conversation, on forums just like this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9269760

That makes it a bit difficult to respond in good faith to people who chime in with vague, 'you people believe the western media too much' comments.

But I'd be interested in knowing your response to concrete things I mentioned in my comment. For instance, how wealthy is Putin? How about his close allies? And how did they make their fortunes? And is he in an endless Presidency, or not?

(None of which is to say that Putin hasn't been a fantastically successful President; he reintroduced the stability necessary for Russia to succeed, which it really has during his Presidency ... but the problems with success via concentration of power in one man are age-old, and a common one is a foreign policy, motivated by entirely domestic concerns and a desire to stay on top, that appears irrational on the international stage).