That's what I think.

until recently.

I noticed Putin-love from anti-Obama internet commenters in the past, long before Trump ran for President. They'd usually say Putin was a "strong leader" without going into details. I mostly wondered if they were Russian trolls at the time.

I worked with a woman who was an Ahiskan Turk. She was granted asylum from Russia into this country about 10 years ago. She told me that her ancestors were forced to leave Georgia when Stalin took over that country. They were never granted citizenship in Russia and she said the violence against them -- sometimes murder right in the streets without anyone showing concern -- from Russian police and citizens was terrible. They stuck together in a slum to help protect each other.

I've read about it in foreign news. I do wonder if it could be what Mitt was referring when he said Russia was out biggest threat. I'm sure some trump voters never thought about it but then there are those who see it as a bonus.

they promoted around the world.

Bad leaders like Trump?

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/26/romney-russia-is-our-number-one-geopolitical-foe/

ROMNEY: Well, I'm saying in terms of a geopolitical opponent, the nation that lines up with the world's worst actors. Of course, the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough.

But when these - these terrible actors pursue their course in the world and we go to the United Nations looking for ways to stop them, when - when Assad, for instance, is murdering his own people, we go - we go to the United Nations, and who is it that always stands up for the world's worst actors?

It is always Russia, typically with China alongside.

And - and so in terms of a geopolitical foe, a nation that's on the Security Council, that has the heft of the Security Council and is, of course, a - a massive nuclear power, Russia is the - the geopolitical foe and - and the - and they're - the idea that our president is - is planning on doing something with them that he's not willing to tell the American people before the election is something I find very, very alarming.

While homosexuality is not illegal in Russia, they enacted an anti "gay propaganda" law in 2013.

Putin has tried to connect homosexuality with pedophilia, for example.

and the Russian people she met there were quite vocal about not liking anyone of color. She seemed shocked and always said Russia was the one place on earth she would never return to.

You can catch the episode on Nexflix.

(snip)

Throughout the presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump mystified many on the left and in the foreign policy establishment with his praise for Mr. Putin and his criticism of the Obama administration’s efforts to isolate and punish Russia for its actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. But what seemed inexplicable when Mr. Trump first expressed his admiration for the Russian leader seems, in retrospect, to have been a shrewd dog whistle to a small but highly motivated part of his base.

For Mr. Heimbach is far from alone in his esteem for Mr. Putin. Throughout the collection of white ethnocentrists, nationalists, populists and neo-Nazis that has taken root on both sides of the Atlantic, Mr. Putin is widely revered as a kind of white knight: a symbol of strength, racial purity and traditional Christian values in a world under threat from Islam, immigrants and rootless cosmopolitan elites.

“I’ve always seen Russia as the guardian at the gate, as the easternmost outpost of our people,” said Sam Dickson, a white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan lawyer who frequently speaks at gatherings of the so-called alt-right, a far-right fringe movement that embraces white nationalism and a range of racist and anti-immigrant positions. “They are our barrier to the Oriental invasion of our homeland and the great protector of Christendom. I admire the Russian people. They are the strongest white people on earth.”

In addition to all of what you have listed in your OP.

For the American far-Right, the Klansmen and wannabe Nazis (and actual Nazis), what's not to love?

I apparently misjudged the prevalence of deep racist attitudes that still exists in this country.

A triple post deletion above?

I wasn't here to see what happened.