He's the most liked leader in the world by his own people, his approval upon launching the SMO was 83%. Calling him a dictator or even worse, "as bad" as 'the rest' of the dictators only shows you have been indoctrinated into the western MSM narrative which has no basis in reality but prompts exactly that, that the Russian President is 'as bad as a dictator'. In reality Putin was pushed into this conflict by the opposition in Russia, the second most powerful political party in the Russian Duma, the Communist Party.