I remember seeing an interview with Putin back on r/conspiracy, probably before the 2016 election. Anyway, the American journalist asked him a dumb question - one of those leading "gotcha" questions that they like so well - and Putin just sort of snickered and said "Tell your American viewers that their media is lying to them" and then went on about it for a bit.

I get the feeling that our view of Putin is similar to how the media pushes "Donald Trump the Despot". They really don't like him for some reason and have to paint him as this big bad guy while he may just be a man who wants so much more for his country.