Why? In the eyes of the Russians, Putin is a man who took a country, that lost the cold war and was made a play thing of the west, from the brink and made it in to a power that the rest of the world can't ignore. When the US tried playing their hand in Ukraine, he stopped them, took Crimea and no one could do a thing about it.They levied sanction on Russia and the news outlets were blaring 24/7 how the Russian economy would collapse by the end of the year, it didn't. The west tried to collapse the Syrian government like it did with so many countries before it, he got involved and stopped it. People like a strong leader and he fits the bill.