So much to unpack here, but I firmly believe that the reason most Americans believe that Putin is a "bad man" is because of two decades or more of pretty much lies and "actual fake news," such as:
- The Skripal poisoning (never happened)
- That Russia bombed a civilian airliner over Ukraine (never happened)
- That Putin helped Syrian President Assad gas his own people (he didn't help and Assad did not "gas his own people)
- That Putin put a bounty on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan (never happened)
Those are just some examples of the Deep State (CIA) planted stories in the main stream media that people did question vociferously, but their voices were censored, and when enough reporters did prove that such and such never happened, it was never retracted, and the public went on believing the initial story.
In such respects it is very similar to what happened in Kenosha (the police NEVER "shot an unarmed black man for no reason other than racism) and Kyle Rittenhouse NEVER "took his AR-15 to go hunting for and shooting three black men because racism.
Yet to this day, there are millions of people who believed the initial lies (also known as fake news) and really looking at the entire Russia/Ukraine conflict through that lens.
That is a lot of deprogramming that probably will not happen soon, because censorship.
Oh yeah one more very important thing: Putin did not "invade and annex Crimea." Crimea separated itself from the illegitimate regime in Kiev, then the people had a referendum and freely chose to become a part of Russia.