I don't think people appreciate how messy the breakup of the Soviet Union was and only a few years prior Chernobyl happened...
Dissolution of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia
Putin and Russia have been a massive destabilizing force in the region. Without Putin or someone like him in charge Ukraine and other former Soviet states would've been able to create better conditions for themselves with an actual rule of law without oligarchs. Advocating for nuclear proliferation is just suicidal.
I am no Russian troll or Putin fan, but objectively up to around 2004-06 Putin was actually a stabilizing force in the region. If you don't remember how bad Russia had collapsed, people were being paid in barter instead of rubles. They defaulted on their debt and thousands of Russian men were drinking themselves to death. All their Cold War toys were also close to falling into bad hands. Remember all the articles and movies warning about a stray nuke being sold from the Russians to terrorists, etc. It was bad and the country was on the brink. Putin was even that hard core nationalist back then, people like Zhirinovsky were seen as the hardcore types.
The reason Putin has stayed so long is he objectively pulled Russia out of a bad place. Now around 2006 is when we start butting heads and the whole NATO offer to Georgia was stupid. Even with the Georgia war though, if he had retired when Medvedev took over for a term and stayed out of politics he would be remembered as an elder statesman in most of Europe except the UK. Coming back after that term is when it really went downhill and everyone realized this guy is going to be no good anymore. Sad, since Russia has a lot of potential.
This has happened a lot lately, including in Turkey. Erdogan started out as a great reformer and then gutted the opposition and is now nearly a crazy uncle.
