The shortage of free press there and the sensationalist information within the west is in charge on your notion of him being an evil but competent chief. If there’s something I realized it is this; if Trump one way or the other turned dictator of the US and cracked down on the press brutally. Not solely that, however the US turned as authoritarian as Russia and even China within the course of, he would very properly be seen as a dangerously competent autocrat (although he’d nonetheless be an fool all the identical).
Press is excellent at making folks type opinions. Lack of Free press means lack of actually good perception into the leaders of these international locations. Westerners would assume Putin was competent as a result of he was introduced as such by state media, and reported as such by overseas media with a lack of understanding on Putin (due to how tough it might be to acquire such information). In that sense, folks fell for propaganda.
Edit: I suppose the lesson to be realized is that when you assume a frontrunner of an authoritarian nation is “good” all the time assume twice. Their strengths will likely be exaggerated by state media and weaknesses could be underreported by overseas (or different) media.
