Honestly, the war part wouldn't have been a problem if the guy starting the war had been remotely as cool as the earlier propaganda had made him out to be. Instead, constant, whiny appeals for negotiations and being betrayed and lied too, all while some pointless trench warfare grinds on. When your country's own nationalists consider your a weasly, spineless coward who is probably just out to get his own people killed for a political/financial power game...well, it's not a good look. I genuinely don't call it "Isekai Putin" anymore because it would be an insult to Purchinov.
Purchinov uses diplomacy until he needs force, and then he uses it boldly, bravely, swiftly and lethally (and you'll notice it almost always targets the leaders of the enemy forces, not their soldiers or civilians as much, if the latter ever). Those who must die, die, and the war wraps up quickly. Then, there is a swift return to a better peace. Purchinov is the kind of peacetime and wartime leader humanity needs and Russia especially. Instead, we have to deal with the real ones: former gangsters and businessmen who would sooner see their own people slaughtered than possibly harm their respected "peers".