The reasons are similar to why Greek's love their Prime Minister.
Standing up to the Rest of the World does make you a hero in your country.
Standing up to the Rest of the World does make you a hero in your country.
That is only the partial answer. The rest of the world doesn't mean the United States and its European allies. It also includes neutral states such as China, India, Brazil, South Africa.etc.
To understand the situation in Russia, you have to carefully analyze the situation. You have to see who is the main rival of Putin inside Russia. His main rivals are oligarchs such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky. As far as the Russians are concerned, they have a choice of choosing between Putin, and the oligarchs. Obviously they chose the former.
China neutral? China OWNS the US, many parts of Africa and they keep going. Why? Oh America, you need more money because you spend too much on war? Sure, we'll lend it to you, i'm eager to see when they what happens when they want their money back. They are buying power.
Let's see. China population = near 1.5 billion. U.S. population = near 0.33 billion.
True ownership is based on strength. It isn't only formal strength, but it is also self-opposing strength (fear).
Each American will need to shoot almost 6 times, and hit their target fatally every time.
Only 1/6th of Chinese will need to hit their target fatally.
Of course, Chinese people have way less guns per person than Americans. This should prove interesting... to see who owns whom, that is.
